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Volumes  Issued 

The  Church  a Community  Force.  By  Worth  M.  Tippy 
The  Church  at  the  Center.  By  Warren  H.  Wilson 
The  Making  of  a Country  Parish.  By  Harlow  S.  Mills 
Working  Women  of  Japan.  By  Sidney  L.  Gulick 
Social  Evangelism.  By  Harry  F.  Ward 


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A FARMER'S  HOME 


WORKING  WOMEN 
OF  JAPAN 


Twenty-five  years  a missionary  in  Japan,  Professor  in 
Doshisha  University,  Late  Lecturer  in  the 
Imperial  University  of  Kyoto 
Author  of 

Growth  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  ; Evolution  of  the  Japanese  ; 
The  White  Peril  in  the  Far  East ; The  American 


SIDNEY  L.  GULICK 


Japanese  Problem ; The  Fight  for  Peace 


1915 

Missionary  Education  Movement  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada 


COPYRIGHT,  1915,  BY 

MISSIONARY  EDUCATION  MOVEMENT  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  AND  CANADA 


Dedicated 

to 

SHINJIRO  OMOTO 

in  appreciation  of  more  than  a decade 
of  untiring  service 
for  the 

Working  Women  of  Japan 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

Preface ix 

I Social  Classes  in  Japan,  Old  and 

New i 

II  Farmers’  Wives  and  Daughters  8 
III  Domestic  Industries  in  Farming 

Families 24 


IV 

Silk  Workers 

32 

V 

Wives  and  Daughters  of  Arti- 

zans  and  Merchants  . 

36 

VI 

Komori  (Baby-tenders)  . 

42 

VII 

Household  Domestics  . 

48 

VIII 

Hotel  and  Tea-house  Girls 

52 

IX 

Factory  Girls  and  Women  . 

61 

X 

Geisha  (Het^er^e)  .... 

87 

XI 

Seogi  (Licensed  Prostitutes) 

104 

XII 

Ameliorative  Efforts  . 

118 

XIII 

The  Matsuyama  Working  Girls’ 

Home 

i37 

ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 


A Farmer’s  Home  ....  Frontispiece 
Separating  the  Wheat  Heads  from  the  Straw  16 

At  the  Loom 16 

A Family  at  Work  in  a Rice-Field  ...  28 

Transplanting  Young  Rice  Plants  . . 28 

Spinning  Cotton  Thread  for  Weaving  . . 32 

At  Work  in  a Kitchen 32 

Carrying  Fagots 44 

Baby-Tenders 44 

At  Work  in  a Silk  Factory  ....  82 

O Hamayu  (Geisha) 92 

Matsuyama  Working  Girls’  Home  . . . 156 

Girls  in  the  Matsuyama  Home  . . . 156 


PREFACE 


Japan  is  rapidly  swinging  into  the  current 
of  an  industrial  civilization  imported  from 
the  West.  How  is  this  movement  modify- 
ing her  ancient  civilization?  And,  espe- 
cially, what  effect  is  it  having  on  her  homes 
and  on  the  character  of  her  manhood  and 
womanhood?  These  are  questions  of  pro- 
found interest  to  students  of  national  and 
social  evolution. 

While  many  works  on  Japan  consider 
these  questions  more  or  less  fully,  they  do 
so  almost  exclusively  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  effect  on  men.  So  far  as  is  known,  no 
work  studies  the  problem  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  effect  on  women,  who,  it  may 
be  incidentally  remarked,  constitute  one 
half  of  the  population. 

One  book,  indeed,  that  by  Miss  Alice  M. 
Bacon,  on  Japanese  Girls  and  IV omen,  de- 
scribes the  homes,  lives,  and  characteristics 
[ix] 


PREFACE 


of  Japanese  women.  This  important  work 
should  not  be  overlooked  by  any  who  wish 
to  know  Japan  thoroughly.  Yet  Miss  Bacon’s 
study  is  largely  confined  to  the  higher  and 
upper  middle  classes,  who,  though  impor- 
tant, constitute  but  one  section  of  the  women 
of  Japan.  To  understand  Japan  it  is  also 
needful  to  know  the  lives  and  characteristics 
of  the  working  classes.  Especially  impor- 
tant in  the  eyes  of  those  who  study  social 
development  is  the  transformation  that  is 
taking  place  in  the  Japanese  home  because 
of  the  influx  of  Occidental  industrialism. 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  give  some 
information  as  to  conditions  prevailing 
among  working  women,  which  conditions 
have  called  for  the  establishment  of  insti- 
tutions whose  specific  aim  is  the  amelioration 
of  the  industrial  and  moral  situation.  Two 
classes  of  workers  have  not  been  consid- 
ered— school-teachers  and  nurses. 

The  reader  will  naturally  ask  what  the 
native  religions  have  done  to  help  women 
meet  the  modern  situation.  The  answer 

[x] 


PREFACE 


is  short;  practically  nothing.  They  are  seri- 
ously belated  in  every  respect.  For  ages  the 
native  religions  have  served  by  doctrine  and 
practise  to  hold  women  down  rather  than 
to  elevate  them.  The  doctrine  of  the  “ triple 
obedience  ” to  father,  to  husband,  and  when 
old  to  son,  has  had  wide-reaching  and  disas- 
trous consequences.  It  has  even  been  utilized 
for  the  support  of  the  brothel  system.  Popu- 
lar Buddhism,  especially  during  the  feudal 
era,  has  emphasized  the  inherent  sinfulness 
of  woman;  some  have  even  taught  that  her 
lightest  sins  are  worse  than  the  heaviest  sins 
of  man.  The  brothel  system  flourishes  in 
certain  districts  where  Buddhism  is  most 
strongly  entrenched.  Brothels  abound  in  the 
immediate  vicinity  of  famous  and  popular 
temples.  I have  yet  to  hear  of  a Buddhist 
anti-brothel  movement  or  a Buddhist  rescue 
home  for  prostitutes.  Japanese  philanthropy, 
under  the  impulse  of  Buddhism,  did  indeed 
start  early  and  attain  striking  development 
at  the  hands  of  Imperial  and  princely  per- 
sonages. Men  and  women  of  lowly  origin 
[xi] 


PREFACE 


also  attained  high  rank  in  the  annals  of 
Buddhist  philanthropy.  With  the  decay  of 
Buddhism  in  recent  centuries,  however,  lit- 
tle philanthropic  activity  has  survived.  With 
the  revival  of  Buddhism  Buddhists  have 
again  undertaken  philanthropic  work;  they 
have  established  orphan  asylums,  schools,  ex- 
convict homes,  and  various  benevolent  enter- 
prises for  the  poor,  the  old,  and  invalids; 
but  not  yet  do  they  seem  to  appreciate  the 
moral  and  industrial  situation,  or  undertake 
anything  commensurate  with  their  numbers 
and  resources.  The  conception  of  private 
enterprise  for  the  amelioration  of  industrial 
difficulties  and  moral  need  is  still  the  almost 
exclusive  possession  of  Christians. 

The  closing  chapter  describes  one  insti- 
tution in  which  the  Christian  ideal  is  ap- 
plied to  the  moral  and  industrial  situation 
in  one  small  town.  It  serves  as  an  illus- 
tration of  what  is  being  done  by  Christians 
in  other  places  and  along  many  other  lines 
as  well.  Christianity  is  being  accepted  in 
Japan,  not  so  much  because  of  its  doctrine, 
[xii] 


PREFACE 


as  because  of  its  practical  methods  of  in- 
spiring and  uplifting  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. While  the  purpose  of  this  book  is, 
as  stated,  to  describe  the  industrial  condi- 
tion and  the  characteristics  of  Japanese  work- 
ing women,  back  of  this  purpose  is  the  de- 
sire to  show  how  the  Christian  gospel,  when 
concretely  expressed,  takes  hold  of  Japanese 
working  women  in  exactly  these  conditions 
and  becomes  to  them  “ the  power  of  God 
unto  salvation.” 

The  problems  of  life  are  substantially  the 
same  the  world  around,  for  human  nature 
is  one;  and  the  heart  with  its  needs,  desires, 
temptations,  defeats,  and  victories  is  essen- 
tially the  same,  East  or  West.  The  prob- 
lems created  by  industrialism  do  not  differ, 
whether  in  Germany,  England,  and  America 
or  in  Japan  and  China.  And  their  funda- 
mental solution  likewise  is  the  same. 

Let  not  the  reader  assume  that  the  dis- 
cussions of  this  volume  give  adequate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  working  women  of 
Japan.  It  deals  with  only  a few  specific 
[ xiii  ] 


PREFACE 


classes  and  inadequately  even  with  them. 
A more  comprehensive  treatment  would 
doubtless  be  enlightening.  Limitations,  how- 
ever, of  time  and  space  forbid  a more  ade- 
quate discussion. 

And  let  the  reader  be  wary  of  generalizing 
certain  criticisms  herein  made  and  applying 
them  universally  to  all  classes  of  women. 
Many  years  of  life  in  Japan  have  led  the 
writer  to  a high  estimation  of  the  charac- 
ter as  well  as  the  culture  of  Japanese  women. 

Especial  thanks  are  due  to  Colonel  Yama- 
muro  for  valued  criticisms  and  suggestions 
in  the  preparation  of  this  work.  The  re- 
sponsibility, however,  for  its  statements  rests 
upon  the  writer.  The  limitations  of  this 
book  none  can  feel  more  than  he. 


[ xiv] 


CHAPTER  I 


SOCIAL  CLASSES  IN  JAPAN,  OLD  AND  NEW 

IN  old  Japan,  next  to  the  Imperial  family 
and  court  nobles,  came  the  feudal  lords 
( Daimio ),  upheld  by  the  warrior  class 
(Samurai) , below  whom  in  turn  were  ranked 
the  three  chief  working  classes, — farmers, 
artizans,  and  tradesmen.  These  three  classes 
produced  and  distributed  the  nation’s  wealth 
and  paid  taxes  to  their  respective  feudal  lords 
by  whom  the  warriors  were  supported.  Be- 
low all  were  day  laborers  and  palanquin 
bearers, — in  those  days  a large  and  important 
though  a despised  class,  for  they  lived  en- 
tirely by  bare,  brute  strength,  lacking  all 
special  skill.  Still  lower  were  the  eta  or 
pariah  class,  excluded  from  towns  and  vil- 
lages, except  when  they  entered  to  do  the 
foulest  work,  such  as  digging  the  graves 
of  criminals  and  the  slaughtering  of  animals, 

[i] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and  curing  their  skins.  And  lowest  of  all 
were  hi-nin,  literally  translated  “ non- 
humans.” These  were  beggars  and  crimi- 
nals, who  would  not  or  could  not  work. 
The  name,  popularly  given,  well  indicates 
how  they  were  regarded. 

With  the  fall  of  the  feudal  system,  in  the 
early  seventies,  society  was  reorganized. 
Those  above  the  Samurai  were  divided  in 
1886  into  five  grades,  not  counting  the  Im- 
perial princes,  namely:  prince,  marquis, 

count,  viscount,  and  baron.  These  constitute 
to-day  the  hereditary  peers  of  Japan,  and 
possess  considerable  wealth  and,  of  course, 
overwhelming  prestige. 

They  numbered,  in  1903,  1,784  families. 
Besides  the  1,784  heads  of  these  families, 
there  were  1,786  male  and  2,485  female  mem- 
bers of  these  families  of  rank.  The  number 
of  these  peers  is  constantly  being  increased 
by  Imperial  favor,  the  conferring  of  rank 
being  the  customary  method  of  rewarding 
distinguished  service.  According  to  the 
Japan  Year  Book  for  1914,  the  number  of 

[2] 


SOCIAL  CLASSES  IN  JAPAN 


peers  in  1911  was  919,  there  being  17  princes, 
37  marquises,  101  counts,  378  viscounts,  and 
386  barons.  Promotion  from  one  rank  to 
another  causes  constant  change  in  the  num- 
bers of  the  various  ranks. 

The  Samurai,  deprived  of  their  swords  and 
military  privileges,  were  given  the  name 
shizoku  (Samurai  families)  and  were  paid 
off  in  lump  sums,  thereafter  being  thrown 
on  their  own  resources.  There  are  439,- 
154  shizoku  families,  numbering  altogether 
2,169,018  individuals.  The  remaining  classes 
were  designated  as  heimin  (common  people). 
Statistics  show  that  they  number  8,471,610 
families,  totaling  44,558,025  individuals. 
The  eta  were  elevated,  hence  popularly 
called  shin-heimin  (new  common  people) 
and  allowed  to  live  anywhere  and  take  up 
any  desirable  calling.  The  hi-nin  also  were 
classed  along  with  the  rest  of  humankind. 
As  a matter  of  fact,  the  eta  and  hi-nin  were 
but  a small  fringe  of  the  whole  population, 
the  descendants  of  the  former  being  now  es- 
timated at  something  less  than  one  million, 

[3] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and  those  of  the  latter  amounting  to  about 
35,000. 

With  the  national  reorganization  it  was 
inevitable  that  the  new  executive  offices 
from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  should  be 
given  to  men  of  experience.  At  first,  there- 
fore, the  reorganization  amounted  to  little 
more  than  a great  shuffle  of  names  and  titles. 
Peers  took  the  highest  governmental  posi- 
tions, while  Samurai  and  their  sons  as  a rule 
filled  the  lower  posts.  Many  Samurai,  how- 
ever, received  no  appointments  and  had  to 
go  to  work.  In  time,  as  education  has  pro- 
gressed, sons  of  farmers  and  merchants  have 
become  qualified  and  have  been  appointed 
to  government  offices.  The  new  departments, 
such  as  the  educational,  the  postal  and  tele- 
graph offices,  the  railroads,  and  especially 
the  army  and  navy,  call  for  large  numbers 
of  efficient  men.  These  posts  are  filled  al- 
most entirely  on  the  basis  of  fitness.  While 
ancestry  is  not  entirely  ignored  in  the  mak- 
ing of  appointments,  nevertheless  old  class 
distinctions  are  gradually  being  obliterated. 

[4] 


SOCIAL  CLASSES  IN  JAPAN 


The  fortunes  of  the  women  have  naturally 
followed  those  of  the  men.  All  families  that 
lost  their  hereditary  income  had  to  go  to 
work;  this  was  true  chiefly  of  the  Samurai. 
Where  the  men  were  fortunate,  the  women 
could  maintain  the  old  customs,  limiting 
themselves  to  their  familiar  domestic  work, 
with  a servant  or  two  to  help,  but  tens  of 
thousands  of  Samurai  families  found  them- 
selves reduced  to  the  direst  poverty;  women 
having  generations  of  genteel  ancestry  were 
forced  to  enter  the  ranks  of  the  workers. 

Let  us  define  what  we  mean  by  a working 
woman.  Women  whose  husbands  or  par- 
ents provide  the  support  of  the  family  are 
not  to  be  included  in  this  term.  These 
women  may,  and  indeed  doubtless  do,  labor 
abundantly  and  fruitfully  in  the  home;  their 
time  is  fully  occupied.  Probably  no  work- 
ing women  toil  more  diligently  or  for  longer 
hours  than  do  these  wives  and  mothers  in 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  homes,  in  most 
of  which  there  are  no  servants.  All  the 
cooking,  sewing,  and  housecleaning  is  done 

[5] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


by  them,  so  that  they  are  indeed  workers. 
But  they  are  not  “ working  women.”  They 
are  the  true  gentlewomen  of  Japan,  whose 
culture,  graces,  and  charms  are  not  easily 
described. 

By  “ working  women  ” we  mean  only  those 
women  who,  in  addition  to  the  regular  du- 
ties of  the  home,  must  share  in  the  labor 
of  earning  the  daily  bread.  In  Japan  the 
number  of  such  is  exceptionally  large,  if 
compared  with  that  of  some  countries  of 
the  West.  They  may  be  divided  into  eleven 
classes,  according  to  the  nature  of  their  oc- 
cupations, namely:  school-teachers,  nurses, 
clerks  and  office  girls,  farmers,  home  indus- 
trial workers,  factory  hands,  domestics,  baby- 
tenders,  hotel  and  tea-house  girls,  geisha, 
and  prostitutes.  Omitting  the  teachers  and 
nurses,  these  are  the  classes  whose  condi- 
tions, numbers,  education,  and  character  we 
are  now  to  study.  Taken  as  a whole  we  do 
not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  working  women 
of  Japan,  while  probably  lower  in  point  of 
moral  and  physical  energy  and  personal  in- 

[6] 


SOCIAL  CLASSES  IN  JAPAN 


itiative  than  corresponding  classes  of  the 
West,  are  not  inferior  to  them  in  point  of 
personal  culture.  And  if  civilization  is 
defined,  as  it  should  be,  in  terms  of  per- 
sonal culture  rather  than  in  those  of  me- 
chanical contrivances  and  improvements,  then 
Japan  will  surely  take  her  place  among  the 
highly  civilized  nations  of  the  world. 


[7] 


CHAPTER  II 


FARMERS’  WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 

JAPAN  has  three  leading  wealth-earning 
occupations:  agriculture,  sericulture,  and 
factory  work.  In  each  of  these  women  take 
an  important  part.  In  the  cultivation  of  the 
soil  farmers’  wives  and  daughters  share 
equally  with  men  the  toil  of  planting  and 
reaping  the  crops.  For  instance,  in  the  cul- 
tivation of  rice,  the  most  important  and  the 
hardest  work  of  the  farmer,  it  is  often  the 
women  who  plant  it  spear  by  spear  in  regu- 
lar rows,  and  it  is  they  who  “ puddle  ” the 
paddy-fields  with  their  hands  four  or  five 
times  in  the  course  of  the  season.  In  some 
districts,  however,  men  and  women  do  this 
work  together.  The  toil  and  the  weariness 
involved  cannot  be  appreciated  by  one  who 
has  not  actually  shared  it.  Fancy,  if  you 
can,  the  fatigue  of  standing  more  than  ankle 

[8] 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


deep  in  mud,  stooping  all  day  long  as  you 
set  out  the  tiny  rice  plants  in  regular  lines! 
And  at  short  intervals  of  a few  days  each  you 
must  repeatedly  puddle  the  whole  paddy- 
field:  that  is,  stir  up  the  mud  with  your 
hands  in  order  to  destroy  the  sprouting 
weeds  and  prevent  the  soil  from  caking  and 
hardening  around  the  tender  rice  roots,  pre- 
venting their  best  growth.  And  remember 
that  you  must  do  all  this  regardless  of  the 
broiling  summer  sun,  or  the  pelting  rain,  for 
the  planting  must  be  done  at  exactly  the  right 
time,  and  the  successive  puddlings  must  fol- 
low in  due  order.  So  severe  is  the  strain 
that,  after  the  planting  and  each  puddling, 
the  whole  village  takes  a rest.  My  gardener, 
an  ex-farmer,  speaking  of  those  summer  days 
of  toil  in  the  rice-fields,  expatiates  on  the 
extreme  fatigue  and  the  joy  of  the  rest  days, 
and  as  women  take  the  brunt  of  the  stooping- 
work,  theirs  is  the  lion’s  share  of  the  weari- 
ness. He  says  that,  during  the  rice-planting 
season,  the  women  are . so  important  that 
those  days  are  called  the  “ women’s  daimio 

[9] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


days,”  and  adds  that  vve  must  not  forget 
how  during  that  time  the  regular  work  of 
the  women  must  also  go  on,  for  they  must 
cook  the  food  and  care  for  the  children.  For 
this,  indeed,  young  girls  and  grandmothers 
are  pressed  into  service  as  far  as  possible, 
but  the  responsibility  and  care  rest  neverthe- 
less on  the  wives  and  mothers. 

Also  in  the  harvesting  and  threshing  of 
the  rice,  barley,  wheat,  and  millet,  women 
take  an  important  part.  But  it  is  needless 
to  enter  into  details.  Enough  to  say  that, 
in  general  farming,  women  share  with  hus- 
bands and  brothers  the  heavy  toil  and  fatigue 
of  agriculture.  It  should  be  added  that 
this  is  not  because  men  shirk  heavy  work, 
but  only  because  Japanese  agriculture  is  so 
largely  done  by  hand  that  every  possible 
worker  is  pressed  into  service.  As  a fact, 
men  do  the  heaviest  part  of  the  work,  pre- 
paring the  soil  for  the  successive  crops  and 
carrying  the  heavy  loads. 

So  varied  are  the  modes  of  agriculture  in 
different  parts  of  Japan  that  general  state- 
[ io] 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


merits  are  dangerous,  but  I know  that  in  some 
districts  the  weariness  and  drudgery  of  rice- 
planting and  puddling  are  relieved  by  the 
singing  or  chanting  of  old  folk-songs.  The 
chorus  leader  intones  a descriptive  phrase, 
oftentimes  improvising  his  own  story,  and  is 
answered  with  a refrain  from  a dozen  or  a 
score  of  women.  A story  slowly  evolves  as 
the  hours  pass,  and  thus  the  work  is  light- 
ened and  the  time  beguiled. 

In  spite  of  fatigue,  rice-planting  has  its 
charm  for  those  who  have  been  reared  in 
farmers’  homes.  It  is  a time  of  hope,  of 
social  intercourse,  of  rest  days  and  festivals, 
so  that  even  the  drudgery  of  the  farmer  has 
its  compensations.  Miss  Denton,  of  the 
Doshisha  Girls’  School,  says  it  is  interesting 
to  note  how  country  girls  get  restless  at  rice- 
planting time,  and  for  one  reason  or  another 
usually  succeed  in  getting  excused  from 
school  work,  to  be  off  to  the  homes  and  share 
in  the  toils  and  joys  of  the  season. 

Tea-picking  is  probably  the  pleasantest 
form  of  toil  undertaken  by  farmers’  wives 
[ ii  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and  daughters.  The  labor  comes  in  the 
spring  and  early  summer,  when  the  tempera- 
ture is  delightful.  It  gives  opportunity  for 
social  intercourse  that  is  highly  appreciated. 
Rice-planting  and  tea-picking  constitute  the 
two  extremes  of  laborious  and  delightful  toil 
engaged  in  by  Japan’s  agricultural  women. 

How  many  are  the  women  engaged  in 
agriculture?  The  Japan  Year  Book  for 
1914  says  that  in  1912  there  were  5,438,051 
farming  families,  constituting  about  58  per 
cent,  of  the  entire  nation.  According  to  the 
Resume  Statistique  for  1914  the  total  num- 
ber of  females  in  Japan  proper,  in  1908,  was 
24,542,383.  Omitting  those  under  fifteen 
years  of  age,  8,364,000,  and  those  over  sixty 
years  of  age,  2,216,000,  we  have  13,962,000  as 
the  number  of  able-bodied  women,  of  whom 
58  per  cent.,  or  8,077,000,  are  the  farmers’ 
wives  and  daughters. 

In  regard  to  their  education  it  may  be  said 
that  until  the  most  recent  times  they  have 
had  practically  none.  In  recent  decades, 
however,  farmers’  children  have  begun  to  go 
[ 12  ] 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


to  school.  Until  1908  the  elementary  course 
(compulsory)  covered  four  years,  but  the 
results  were  so  poor  that  the  period  has  now 
been  extended  to  six.  Four  years’  schooling 
does  not  give  ability  to  read  easily  even  a 
simple  daily  paper,  much  less  an  ordinary 
book.  Our  cook,  an  intelligent  and  able 
farming  woman,  when  she  came  to  us  twelve 
years  ago,  could  not  read  even  the  simplest 
Japanese  characters,  and  thinks  that  at  pres- 
ent relatively  few  farmers’  wives  have  enough 
education  to  read  papers  or  write  letters. 
Whether  or  not  six  years’  schooling  will  give 
this  ability  remains  to  be  seen.  It  is  safe 
to  say  that  to-day  Japanese  adult  farming 
women,  as  a whole,  lack  book  education  and 
have  received  little,  if  any,  systematic  train- 
ing. They  are  accordingly  largely  con- 
trolled by  tradition,  and  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  their  level  of  mental,  moral,  and 
spiritual  life  is  low.  The  Shinto  and  Bud- 
dhist religions,  as  they  exist  among  the  farm- 
ers, are  largely  lacking  in  ethical  content; 
they  are  rituals  rather  for  burying  the  dead 
[13] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and  through  the  use  of  charms  and  magic 
rites  they  promise’future  happiness  and  pres- 
ent, temporal  blessings.  Priests,  as  a rule, 
do  not  seek  to  cultivate  the  minds  of  the 
people,  to  strengthen  their  wills  for  moral 
life,  or  to  elevate  their  personalities. 

Yet  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  farming 
women  are  without  mental  ability  or  com- 
mon sense.  They  are  indeed  not  inferior 
to  the  men  with  whom  they  share  the  bur- 
dens and  toil  of  life.  As  a rule  they  are  a 
sturdy,  intelligent,  self-respecting  folk,  hav- 
ing ideals  of  conduct  which  include  clean- 
liness, gentleness,  and  politeness,  and  in  com- 
parison with  the  peasant  classes  of  Europe 
are  much  to  be  commended.  The  women  not 
seldom  appear  to  better  advantage  than  their 
husbands  in  point  of  intelligence  and  com- 
mon sense,  which  I have  thought  might  be 
due  to  the  greater  variety  of  their  daily 
occupation. 

In  her  excellent  work  on  Japanese  Girls 
and  Women  Miss  Bacon  writing  of  this  class 
says:  “There  seems  no  doubt  at  all  that 

[ Hi 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


among  the  peasantry  of  Japan  one  finds  the 
women  who  have  the  most  freedom  and  in- 
dependence. Among  this  class,  all  through 
the  country,  the  women,  though  hard-worked 
and  possessing  few  comforts,  lead  lives  of 
intelligent,  independent  labor,  and  have  in 
the  family  positions  as  respected  and  hon- 
ored as  those  held  by  women  in  America. 
Their  lives  are  fuller  and  happier  than  those 
of  the  women  of  the  higher  classes,  for  they 
are  themselves  breadwinners,  contributing 
an  important  part  of  the  family  revenue,  and 
are  obeyed  and  respected  accordingly.  The 
Japanese  lady,  at  her  marriage,  lays  aside 
her  independent  existence  to  become  the 
subordinate  and  servant  of  her  husband  and 
parents-in-law,  and  her  face,  as  the  years 
go  by,  shows  how  much  she  has  given  up, 
how  completely  she  has  sacrificed  herself 
to  those  about  her.  The  Japanese  peasant 
woman,  when  she  marries,  works  side  by 
side  with  her  husband,  finds  life  full  of 
interest  outside  of  the  simple  household  work, 
and,  as  the  years  go  by,  her  face  shows  more 
[ 15] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


individuality,  more  pleasure  in  life,  less  suf- 
fering and  disappointment  than  that  of  her 
wealthier  and  less  hard-working  sister.”  1 
The  home  of  the  average  tenant  farmer  is 
a small,  single-storied,  thatch-roofed  build- 
ing, having  usually  two  or  three  small  rooms 
separated  by  sliding  paper  screens,  and  a 
kitchen  with  earthen  floor.  The  smoke  es- 
capes as  it  can,  passing  through  the  roof  or 
pervading  the  whole  house.  No  privacy  of 
any  kind  is  possible,  nor  is  any  need  of  it 
felt.  The  house  is  free  of  furniture,  save 
for  one  or  two  chests  of  drawers.  A closet 
or  two  affords  a place  for  the  futon  (bed- 
ding) by  day,  and  for  the  little  extra  cloth- 
ing. Of  course  no  books  are  found  in  such 
homes.  The  main  room  often  has  a board 
floor,  with  a fire  box  in  the  center,  over 
which  is  a kettle  suspended  from  the  roof. 
Here  the  family  eat,  and  friends  gather  to 
chat  after  the  day’s  work  is  over.  The  food 
is  of  the  poorest  grade  in  the  empire,  though 
usually  adequate  in  amount.  Of  course 

1 Pp.  260,  261. 

[16] 


SEPARATING  THE  WHEAT  HEADS  FROM  THE  STRAW 


AT  THE  LOOM 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


there  are  well-to-do  farmers,  not  a few,  who 
own  their  farms,  employ  fellow  farmers,  and 
cultivate  large  areas.  Their  homes  are  larger 
and  better,  but  still  in  arrangement  and  struc- 
ture they  are  practically  the  same.  Their 
sons  attend  the  middle  schools  and  books  and 
the  daily  paper  are  familiar  objects. 

The  economic  condition  of  the  farming 
class  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that 
the  land  cultivated  by  each  family  averages 
three  and  one-third  acres,  which  must  pro- 
vide food  and  clothing  for  five  or  six  per- 
sons. The  great  majority  of  farmers  live 
in  little,  compact  villages,  having  popula- 
tions ranging  from  500  to  5,000.  There  are 
12,706  villages  under  5,000,  and  only  1,311 
villages,  towns,  and  cities  over  5,000.  These 
facts  suggest  the  nature  of  the  social  con- 
ditions of  the  farming  population.  They 
live  under  the  severest  limitations  of  every 
kind,  physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual. 
Yet  during  the  recent  era  of  Meiji  (enlight- 
ened rule),  from  1868  to  1912,  the  economic 
condition  of  the  agricultural  classes  made 
[17] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


great  improvement.  My  gardener,  a man  of 
sixty,  who  remembers  Japan  before  the  ref- 
ormation, 1868,  says  that  farmers  now  live 
in  luxury.  The  taxes  they  pay  to-day  are 
slight  compared  with  what  was  required  of 
them  in  former  times,  when,  in  his  section, 
farmers  had  to  give  to  their  Daimio  about 
five  twelfths  of  the  rice  crop,  while  taxes 
to-day  require  but  one  fifth  or  less.  He 
adds  that  families  owning  three  and  one  third 
acres  of  land  are  well-to-do,  seeing  many 
families  have  to  make  their  entire  living  from 
only  one  acre! 

Of  course,  farmers,  without  education  or 
social  demands,  require  little  beyond  the 
simplest  food  and  shelter.  The  clothing 
needed  by  their  families  is  the  cheapest  cot- 
ton, with  cotton  wadding  added  in  the  winter 
for  warmth.  The  heat  of  the  summer  ren- 
ders much  clothing  a burden.  A farmer  is 
adequately  dressed  for  the  field  or  his  own 
home  if  he  has  on  his  loin-cloth.  His  wife 
or  grown-up  daughter,  when  in  the  house 
with  only  the  immediate  members  of  the  fam- 
[ 18] 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


ily  or  most  intimate  acquaintances  present, 
is  satisfied  with  the  koshimaki — a strip  of 
cloth  some  two  feet  wide  tied  around  the 
waist  and  covering  the  lower  part  of  the 
body.  But  on  the  street  both  men  and  women 
conform  to  the  national  customs  and  wear  the 
kimono. 

The  Japanese  household  and  bathing  cus- 
toms have  served  to  prevent  the  development 
of  that  particular  type  of  modesty  charac- 
teristic of  Western  lands.  It  is  difficult  for 
Occidentals  to  understand  this  feature  of 
Japanese  civilization,  but  such  an  under- 
standing is  essential  if  one  would  do  justice 
to  the  moral  life  of  this  people.  We  may 
not  apply  to  them  Occidental  standards  in 
matters  of  modesty  or  dress.  They  have 
standards  of  their  own,  to  understand  and 
appreciate  which  requires  no  little  study. 

At  this  point,  I venture  a second  quota- 
tion from  Miss  Bacon,  for  she  has  studied 
carefully  this  subject,  which  all  foreigners 
seeking  to  estimate  the  nature  of  Japanese 
civilization  and  moral  character  should  not 
[ 19  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


fail  to  master.  “ As  one  travels,”  she  writes, 
“ through  rural  Japan  in  summer,  and  sees 
the  half-naked  men,  women,  and  children 
that  pour  out  from  every  village  on  one’s 
route,  surrounding  the  kuruma  (wheeled 
vehicle)  at  every  stopping  place,  one  some- 
times wonders  whether  there  is  in  the  coun- 
try any  real  civilization,  whether  these  half- 
naked  people  are  not  more  savage  than  civ- 
ilized. But  when  one  finds  everywhere  good 
hotels,  scrupulous  cleanliness  in  all  the  ap- 
pointments of  toilet  and  table,  polite  and 
careful  servants,  honest  and  willing  perform- 
ance of  labor  bargained  for,  together  with 
the  gentlest  and  pleasantest  of  manners,  one 
is  forced  to  reconsider  the  judgment  formed 
only  upon  one  peculiarity  of  the  national 
life,  and  to  conclude  that  there  is  certainly  a 
high  type  of  civilization  in  Japan,  though 
differing  in  many  particulars  from  our  own. 
A careful  study  of  Japanese  ideas  of  decency, 
and  frequent  conversation  with  refined  and 
intelligent  Japanese  ladies  upon  this  sub- 
ject, has  led  me  to  the  following  conclusion. 

[20] 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


According  to  the  Japanese  standard,  any 
exposure  of  the  person  that  is  merely  inci- 
dental to  health,  cleanliness,  or  convenience 
in  doing  necessary  work  is  perfectly  modest 
and  allowable;  but  an  exposure,  no  matter 
how  slight,  that  is  simply  for  show,  is  in 
the  highest  degree  indelicate.  In  illustration 
of  the  first  part  of  this  conclusion,  I would 
refer  to  the  open  bath-houses,  the  naked  la- 
borers, the  exposure  of  the  lower  limbs  in  wet 
weather  by  the  turning  up  of  the  kimono,  the 
entirely  nude  condition  of  the  country  chil- 
dren in  summer,  and  the  very  slight  cloth- 
ing that  some  adults  regard  as  necessary 
about  the  house  or  in  the  country  during 
the  hot  season.  In  illustration  of  the  last 
point,  I would  mention  the  horror  with 
which  many  Japanese  ladies  regard  that  style 
of  foreign  dress  which,  while  covering  the 
figure  completely,  reveals  every  detail  of  the 
form  above  the  waist,  and,  as  we  say,  shows 
off  to  advantage  a pretty  figure.  To  the 
Japanese  mind,  it  is  immodest  to  want  to 
show  off  a pretty  figure.  As  for  the  ball- 
[ 21  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


room  costumes,  where  neck  and  arms  are 
frequently  exposed  to  the  gaze  of  multitudes, 
the  Japanese  woman  who  would  with  entire 
composure  take  her  bath  in  the  presence 
of  others,  would  be  in  an  agony  of  shame  at 
the  thought  of  appearing  in  public  in  a cos- 
tume so  indecent  as  that  worn  by  many  re- 
spectable American  and  European  women.”  1 
This  completes  our  study  of  the  homes  and 
characteristics  of  five  eighths  of  Japan.  Here 
the  brawn  of  the  nation  is  reared.  Hence 
come  the  sturdy,  docile,  patient,  and  cour- 
ageous soldiers.  Here  are  raised  boys  and 
girls  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who  must 
at  an  early  age  begin  to  earn  a living.  This 
is  the  hunting-ground  of  those  who  seek  for 
builders  of  railroads,  factory  hands,  domes- 
tics, hotel  girls,  baby-tenders,  and  occa- 
sionally geishas,  concubines,  and  prostitutes. 
Considering  the  severe  economic  conditions 
under  which  Japan’s  agricultural  classes  live, 
who  can  fail  to  admire  their  courage  and 
grit,  their  personal  culture,  their  even  tem- 


1 Japanese  Girls  and  Women,  257-260. 

[22] 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS 


per  and  cheerful  faces,  their  innate  habits  of 
courtesy  and  good  breeding,  their  mutual 
patience  and  forbearance,  and  their  simple 
artistic  tastes  and  pleasures!  Do  they  not 
compare  well  with  the  peasant  classes  of  any 
other  nation? 


CHAPTER  III 


DOMESTIC  INDUSTRIES  IN  FARMING 
FAMILIES 

BEFORE  passing  on  to  study  the  various 
classes  of  workers  constantly  recruited 
in  no  small  numbers  from  the  homes  of 
farmers,  we  should  first  consider  the  high 
development  of  industrial  occupations  within 
these  homes  themselves.  To  appreciate  both 
the  opportunity  and  the  need  for  this,  we 
turn  to  the  official  statistics  of  marriage  and 
education.  Until  1908  compulsory  educa- 
tion, as  has  been  already  stated,  covered  four 
years  from  the  age  of  six  to  ten.  According 
to  governmental  statistics  (1912)  98.8  per 
cent,  of  the  boys  and  97.5  per  cent,  of  the 
girls  were  actually  fulfilling  the  requirement. 
This  percentage  seems  high  to  American 
statistical  students,  but  investigations  show 
that,  while  Japanese  rules  for  the  attend- 
ance of  pupils  and  methods  of  counting  the 

[24] 


FARM  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRIES 


same  differ  in  some  respects  from  those  that 
prevail  in  the  United  States  and  Canada,  yet, 
as  a matter  of  fact,  in  school  attendance 
Japan  compares  well  with  other  lands.  It 
should  be  remembered,  however,  that  the 
nature  of  the  Japanese  written  language  is 
such  that  even  six  years  of  elementary  edu- 
cation is  probably  not  equal  to  four  years 
of  similar  schooling  in  Western  lands. 
American  children,  at  the  close  of  their  ele- 
mentary education,  possess  a mastery  of  the 
tools  of  civilization  and  a degree  of  gen- 
eral intelligence  considerably  in  advance  of 
Japanese  children  who  have  enjoyed  the  same 
number  of  years  of  school  life.  As  we  have 
already  seen,  this  amount  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation is  insufficient  to  give  children  ability 
to  read  and  write  with  freedom. 

The  question  for  us  however  is  as  to  the 
number  of  girls  above  school  age  and  still 
unmarried  who,  because  of  family  poverty, 
must  find  some  form  of  wage-earning  occu- 
pation. Turning  to  the  vital  statistics  pro- 
vided by  the  government  (1914),  we  find 

[ 25  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


that  in  1908  there  were  2,496,142  girls  be- 
tween ten  and  fifteen  years  of  age,  and  2,180,- 
408  young  women  between  fifteen  and  twenty 
years  of  age.  But  how  many  of  these  are 
married?  Again  relying  on  government  sta- 
tistics for  the  same  year,  we  learn  that  only 
199  girls  under  fifteen  had  been  married, 
whereas  193,978  had  married  under  twenty 
years  of  age.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  709,- 
021  marriages  took  place  between  twenty 
and  twenty-five  years  of  age,  it  is  altogether 
probable  that,  of  those  married  under  twenty, 
a large  majority  were  married  in  their  nine- 
teenth year.  Remembering  that  many  do 
not  marry  until  the  twenty-third  or  twenty- 
fourth  year,  we  can  confidently  assert  that 
there  are  over  4,000,000  unmarried  girls  and 
young  women  between  the  ages  of  ten  and 
twenty-five;  and,  as  58  per  cent,  belong  to 
the  farming  class,  we  have  in  the  vicinity  of 
3,000,000  girls  who  belong  to  families  of 
such  economic  state  that  they,  no  less  than 
the  boys,  must  contrive  in  some  way  to  earn 
a share  at  least  of  their  own  living.  Girls  of 
[26] 


FARM  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRIES 


fifteen  and  upwards  in  farmers’  families  help 
their  fathers  in  the  lighter  forms  of  agri- 
culture, planting  the  rice,  as  we  have  seen, 
and  reaping  and  threshing  the  crops.  But 
the  small  acreage  to  each  family  barely  pro- 
vides work  enough  for  the  man,  much  less 
for  the  half-grown  boys  and  girls,  hence  the 
need  of  finding  something  besides  the  agri- 
cultural work  for  the  growing  family.  The 
younger  children  (under  fifteen)  are  pressed 
into  lighter  farming,  and  such  household  du- 
ties as  are  within  their  strength  and  ability, 
as  cooking  and  caring  for  the  still  younger 
children;  while  the  older  children  and  the 
mother  help  the  father,  or  take  up  some  do- 
mestic industry,  such  as  the  rearing  of  silk- 
worms, reeling  of  silk,  spinning  of  thread, 
and  weaving  of  silk  and  cotton  fabrics,  or 
similar  work  which  can  be  easily  and  profit- 
ably done  in  the  house  in  spare  hours.  Hence 
has  come  the  widespread  practise  of  house- 
hold industries,  by  which  the  female  mem- 
bers supplement  the  family  income.  There 
were,  in  1907,  1,628,000  members  of  farm- 

[ 27  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


ing  families  who  were  earning  a part  of 
their  living  in  this  way.  This  condition  has 
prevailed  for  many  generations,  and  is  the 
secret  of  the  wonderful  development  of  the 
arts  and  home  industries  in  Japan. 

From  of  old  Japan’s  industrial  system,  like 
that  of  other  lands,  has  been  domestic — car- 
ried on  in  the  house.  There  have  been 
families  and  gilds  which  have  made  their 
entire  livelihood  by  these  manual  industries. 
There  have  also  been  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  farming  families  which  have  supplemented 
their  meager  income  from  their  farms  by 
taking  up  some  of  these  domestic  industries, 
and  those  who  have  displayed  or  developed 
special  aptitude  for  such  work  have  natu- 
rally drifted  into  this  wholly  industrial  life. 
This  has  doubtless  been  the  origin  of  indus- 
trial families  and  gilds.  But  the  point  to  be 
especially  noted  is  that  this  wide  develop- 
ment of  domestic  industries  is  due  to  the 
skill  and  diligence  of  Japan’s  working 
women.  Japanese  men  have  produced  the 
food  by  which  the  nation  has  been  fed;  her 
[28] 


A FAMILY  AT  WORK  IN  A RICE-FIELD 
TRANSPLANTING  YOUNG  RICE  PLANTS 


FARM  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRIES 


women  have  produced  industries  by  which 
the  nation  has  been  clothed,  as  indeed  is  the 
case  of  all  great  civilized  nations.  Their 
long-continued  drill,  from  generation  to  gen- 
eration, in  home  industrial  occupations,  has 
produced  a high  degree  of  manual  dexterity; 
the  eye  and  hand  instinctively  move  accu- 
rately and  rapidly  in  the  work,  and  the  re- 
sult is  that  Japan’s  leading  industries  to  this 
day  are  dependent  on  female  labor.  “ Seri- 
culture, silk-reeling,  cotton  spinning,  habutae 
(a  particular  variety  of  silk  fabric),  and 
other  woven  goods,  tea-picking,  straw  and 
chip  braids,  etc.,  are  practically  dependent  on 
female  labor,”  says  the  Japanese  Year  Book 
for  1910.  “ But  an  industry  depending  on 

female  labor  has  this  peculiarity,  namely: 
it  is  not  compatible  with  the  factory  system, 
but  thrives  best  on  the  domestic  plan.  Gen- 
erally speaking  it  is  in  industries  which  admit 
of  being  carried  on  independently  at  sepa- 
rate homes  by  housewives  and  mothers  that 
skilled  female  labor  is  seen  to  the  best  ad- 
vantage. As  operatives  of  family  industries 

[ 29  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


Japanese  women  show  an  efficiency  rarely 
reached  by  their  foreign  sisters.”  But  in  this 
connection  we  may  remind  ourselves  of  the 
great  skill  and  industry  of  our  grandmothers 
and  preceding  generations  of  women,  who 
lived  before  the  great  factory  system  made 
their  home  industrial  occupations  unneces- 
sary. Japan  is  merely  several  decades  be- 
hind Western  lands  in  her  industrial  de- 
velopment. 

We  are  to  understand,  then,  that  a large 
portion  of  these  3,000,000  unmarried  Japa- 
nese women  and  girls  are  engaged  more  or 
less  continuously  in  some  sort  of  industrial 
work,  either  in  their  own  homes  or  in  small 
groups  in  their  immediate  vicinity.  The 
introduction  into  Japan  of  Occidental  me- 
chanical civilization,  with  its  great  machin- 
ery run  by  steam  power,  and  the  great 
factory  system,  taking  girls  and  young  women 
away  from  their  home  industries,  home  re- 
straints, and  home  training,  is  producing 
mighty  changes  in  Japan’s  traditional  civili- 
zation. The  real  consequences  of  these  new 
[30] 


FARM  DOMESTIC  INDUSTRIES 


modes  of  life  and  labor  are  still  little  appre- 
ciated. There  is  taking  place  a rapid  read- 
justment of  population,  which  indeed  is  eas- 
ily seen,  but  the  disastrous  results  to  the 
mental,  moral,  and  religious  life  of  the  peo- 
ple, even  to  the  maintenance  of  the  ideals 
and  standards  that  controlled  the  older  arts 
and  industries,  are  yet  little  realized,  for  the 
great  changes  have  only  begun  within  the 
past  two  decades.  A generation  or  two  must 
pass  before  we  can  see  clearly  what  it  all 
really  means.  Meanwhile  it  is  for  those  who 
foresee  coming  evils  to  sound  aloud  the  call, 
and,  as  prophets,  to  do  that  which  in  them 
lies  to  meet  the  threatened  disasters,  and 
turn  new  conditions  into  blessings.  Japan 
has  the  advantage  of  a century  of  European 
experience  from  which  to  learn  wisdom.  It 
is  to  be  hoped  that  she  will  avoid  many 
of  the  perils  and  evils  into  which  the  West 
has  fallen,  but  the  signs  of  the  times  are 
not  altogether  reassuring.  There  are,  as  we 
shall  see  later  on,  ominous  clouds  on  Japan’s 
industrial  horizon. 

[ 3i  ] 


CHAPTER  IV 


SILK  WORKERS 

THE  chief  wealth-earning  domestic  in- 
dustry carried  on  by  farmers’  wives 
and  daughters  is  the  rearing  of  silkworms 
and  the  reeling,  spinning,  and  weaving  of 
the  silk.  Japan  supplies  about  28  per  cent, 
of  the  total  silk  of  the  world  and  60  per  cent, 
of  that  used  in  the  United  States.  The 
value  of  the  silk  exported  in  1913  was 
$63,000,000.  Women  are  the  chief  workers, 
contributing  90  per  cent,  of  the  labor.  Here 
again  the  toil  is  taxing  beyond  belief. 

The  brunt  of  the  work  consists  first  in 
filling  the  mouths  of  the  worms,  which  must 
be  fed  at  regular  intervals  night  and  day 
for  about  three  weeks,  during  the  last  few 
days  of  which  they  eat  continuously  and  vo- 
raciously. It  has  been  found  that  the  rear- 
ing of  worms  can  best  be  done  only  on  a 
[ 32  ] 


SPINNING  COTTON  THREAD  FOR  WEAVING 
AT  WORK  IN  A KITCHEN 


SILK  WORKERS 


small  scale,  where  minute  attention  can  be 
given  to  each  tray,  almost  to  each  worm. 
This  means  that  worms  are  reared  in  the 
homes  of  the  people,  rather  than  in  large 
establishments.  During  the  silkworm  sea- 
son everything  else  must  give  way;  the  house 
is  filled  with  trays  of  ravenous  worms;  rest, 
recreation,  and  sleep,  for  old  and  young  alike, 
are  neglected  in  order  that  the  precious 
worms  may  get  their  fill.  Men  and  boys 
bring  in  the  mulberry  leaves  from  the  hills 
and  fields,  while  women  and  girls  strip  the 
branches,  chop  the  leaves  and  feed  them  to 
the  magic  creatures  that  transform  worthless 
green  leaves  into  costly  silk.  The  leaves  must 
not  be  damp,  nor  old,  and  every  condition 
of  weather  and  temperature  must  be  watched 
with  the  closest  care.  Otherwise  there  is 
loss.  This  heavy  work  comes  twice  each 
year,  in  some  places  three  times.  That  is 
to  say,  there  are  two  or  three  crops  of  silk- 
worms. 

Then,  after  the  cocoons  have  been  formed, 
comes  the  reeling  off  of  the  silk,  as  much 
[ 33  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


as  possible  before  the  sleeping  grub  wakens 
and  eats  its  way  out,  destroying  the  silk 
it  has  spun  for  its  nest.  So  again  there  is 
pressure,  and  again  women  do  the  work — I 
never  heard  of  a man  reeling  silk.  It  takes 
the  deft  hand  and  quick  eye  of  a girl  to 
catch  the  thread  in  the  boiling  water,  con- 
nect it  with  the  wheel,  and  unroll  without 
breaking  the  almost  invisible  thread  so  won- 
derfully wound  up  by  the  worm.  This  work 
is  often  done  in  the  homes,  but  increasingly 
now,  because  more  profitably,  in  factories 
where  the  girls  can  be  closely  watched  by 
inspectors  and  paid  according  to  the  skill 
and  the  amount  of  their  work. 

The  number  of  families  engaged  exclu- 
sively in  raising  silk  in  the  nine  principal 
districts  is  reported  ( 1 9 1 1 ) at  370,332.  In 
addition  however  there  are  many  tens  of 
thousands  of  families  which  make  this  only 
a secondary  business.  Many  merely  raise 
the  worms,  selling  the  cocoons  to  the  fac- 
tories, and  in  such  cases  the  work  and  strain 
are  over  in  a few  weeks.  The  value  of  the 
[34] 


SILK  WORKERS 


cocoons  raised  in  1911  was  estimated  at 
$89,001,988,  which  gives  some  idea  of  the 
great  importance  of  this  industry  to  the 
families  engaged  in  it.  But  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  industry  demands  heavy 
expense  and  the  most  taxing  of  toil  while  it 
lasts. 

As  this  industry  is  carried  on  chiefly  in 
the  homes,  the  personal  conditions  of  the 
workers  are  relatively  favorable,  as  favor- 
able as  those  of  the  homes.  This  requires 
therefore  no  special  consideration. 


[35] 


CHAPTER  V 


WIVES  AND  DAUGHTERS  OF  ARTIZANS 
AND  MERCHANTS 

TN  old  Japan,  among  the  workers  the  high- 
est  rank  was  held  by  farmers,  next  by 
artizans,  and  last  came  the  merchants,  for 
they  were  regarded  as  resorting  to  means 
somewhat  degrading  for  making  their  liv- 
ing. In  fact  they  were  not  producers  of 
positive  wealth,  but  lived  by  cunning  wit  on 
what  others  had  made. 

Artizans,  such  as  carpenters,  masons,  and 
professional  weavers,  as  well  as  merchants, 
naturally  live  in  towns  and  cities.  The  first 
work  of  the  wife  is  of  course  in  the  home, 
but  when  the  husband’s  work  is  of  such  a 
nature  that  it  is  possible  the  wife  naturally 
helps  him.  Merchants’  wives  and  daughters, 
for  instance,  keep  the  shops  while  the  hus- 
bands peddle  the  goods  or  secure  fresh  sup- 
plies. Weavers’  wives  and  daughters  aid 
[36] 


ARTIZAN  AND  MERCHANT  CLASS 


directly,  the  whole  family  sharing  in  the 
work  and  acquiring  skill.  Carpentry  and 
masonry  however  are  trades  in  which  women 
take  no  part,  so  women  of  these  classes  also 
seek  some  suitable  domestic  industry.  In 
the  smaller  towns  especially,  in  recent  years, 
rearing  of  silkworms  is  a common  occupa- 
tion for  all  classes  of  moderate  means,  but 
in  the  cities  it  is  impossible  to  secure  the 
necessary  mulberry  leaves,  so  straw  braiding, 
the  making  of  fans,  embroidery,  and  similar 
occupations  are  here  sought;  and  there  are 
produced  the  thousand  and  one  articles  used 
by  the  middle  and  wealthy  classes  and  for 
export.  As  a means  of  increasing  the  income 
the  wives  of  artizans  often  open  their  front 
rooms  as  shops  and  carry  on  a small  retail 
business. 

In  times  of  prosperity  these  classes  flour- 
ish and  grow  luxurious,  but  hard  times  oc- 
casionally come,  when  they  are  reduced  to 
dire  poverty  and  even  to  the  verge  of  star- 
vation; for,  living  away  from  the  land,  they 
are  more  dependent  than  farmers  on  the 
[37] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


continuous  success  of  their  labors  and  sec- 
ondary industries. 

The  school  education  of  the  women  of 
these  classes  is  in  general  the  same  as  that 
of  the  farming  class.  But  inasmuch  as  they 
live,  for  the  most  part,  in  the  larger  villages, 
towns,  and  cities,  they  enjoy  many  advan- 
tages over  their  farming  sisters.  Along  with 
their  husbands  they  have  more  need  of  abil- 
ity to  read  and  write,  and,  becoming  quick- 
witted through  the  stimulus  of  city  life,  they 
learn  more  easily.  In  recent  decades,  espe- 
cially the  last,  many  of  their  children,  natu- 
rally those  of  the  more  successful  families, 
are  pressing  up  into  the  higher  schools  of 
learning.  As  a body,  therefore,  from  the 
standpoint  of  mere  intellect  and  wit,  this 
class  surpasses  the  farming  class.  From  the 
standpoint  however  of  moral  character,  of 
conjugal  fidelity,  of  industry,  and  of  trust- 
worthiness in  all  relations  the  farming  class, 
along  with  the  shizoku,  surpasses  all  others, 
and  probably  even  the  peers  themselves.  But 
in  these  higher  classes  we  must  distinguish 

[38] 


ARTIZAN  AND  MERCHANT  CLASS 


between  the  men  and  the  women;  for  while 
the  wives  are,  as  a rule,  beyond  praise  in 
the  matter  of  conjugal  fidelity,  the  same  may 
not  be  said  of  the  husbands. 

Among  the  many  classes  of  working 
women  named  on  a previous  page  are  the 
“clerks.”  This  is  a new  feature  of  Japanese 
life  worthy  of  note,  although  the  class  is  still 
small.  Under  this  name  we  include  ticket 
sellers  in  railway  stations,  assistant  barbers, 
and  saleswomen  and  shopgirls.  Members  of 
this  class  have  of  course  enjoyed  a relatively 
large  amount  of  education,  and  are  therefore 
above  the  average  in  general  intelligence  and 
ability.  These  girls  are  recruited  from  the 
families  of  city  artizans  and  merchants. 

The  descendants  of  palanquin  bearers,  day 
laborers,  eta,  and  hi-nin  form  to-day  the 
lowest  stratum  of  society,  dwelling  on  the 
outskirts  of  large  cities,  in  wretchedness, 
filth,  and  poverty,  getting  their  living  from 
day  to  day  and  breeding  criminals,  geisha, 
and  prostitutes.  The  stone-breakers,  gravel 
gatherers,  coolies,  and  most  irregular  of  city 
[39] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


day  laborers  come  from  this  class.  Many  of 
these  men  have  illustrious  pedigrees.  Some 
fell  to  this  estate  through  wanton  lust  and 
reckless  expenditure  of  inherited  wealth; 
some  are  descendants  of  disinherited  sons; 
the  ancestors  of  some  have  met  political 
reverses  and  found  refuge  and  safety  only 
among  the  “ non-humans,”  where  they  could 
live  unrecognized  and  unknown.  Thus  all 
grades  of  blood  course  through  the  veins  of 
this,  the  lowest  class  in  Japan.  The  wives 
and  daughters  of  these  men  share  their  fate 
and  fortune,  living  from  hand  to  mouth. 
Their  life  is  so  low  and  uncertain  that  it 
is  absurd  to  speak  of  secondary  occupations — 
they  lack  even  a primary  occupation;  and 
their  homes,  which  constitute  the  slums  of 
the  cities,  are  no  places  in  which  to  carry 
on  any  domestic  industry. 

With  the  coming  to  Japan  however  of 
modern  industrialism  and  the  building  of 
large  factories  in  or  near  the  cities,  the  wives 
and  daughters  of  this  class  have  opportunity 
for  regular  work,  earning  enough  and  more 
[40] 


ARTIZAN  AND  MERCHANT  CLASS 


than  enough  to  support  themselves  while  ac- 
tually at  work.  But  when  attacked  by  lazi- 
ness, fickleness,  or  disease,  they  easily  slump 
back  into  the  same  economic  pit.  From 
this  lowest  class  comes  one  of  the  serious 
dangers  threatening  the  better  life  of  mod- 
ern Japan.  The  insufficiency  of  these  la- 
borers, their  unreliable  character,  and  the 
inferior  quality  of  their  work,  have  forced 
the  factories  to  search  elsewhere  for  hands. 
These  they  have  found  in  the  relatively 
workless,  but  industrious  and  comparatively 
moral  farming  class.  These  farmers’  girls 
have  been  brought  to  the  cities  and  thrown 
into  intimate  relations  with  the  lowest,  most 
dissolute,  despised,  and  really  despicable 
classes,  and  the  results  have  naturally  been 
disastrous  in  many  ways,  as  we  shall  see  in 
a later  chapter. 


1 

[4i  ] 


CHAPTER  VI 


KOMORI  (BABY-TENDERS) 

THE  great  poverty  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  renders  necessary,  as  already 
noted,  not  only  the  utmost  economy  in  the 
home,  but  also  a high  degree  of  industry, 
and  the  beginning  of  productive  labor  at 
an  early  age.  As  soon  as  the  child  has  com- 
pleted the  elementary  education,  and,  in  cases 
of  exceptional  poverty,  even  before  that,  he 
or  she  must  begin  to  do  something  of  value 
and  earn  a living,  at  least  in  part.  In  the 
case  of  farming  families,  younger  children 
care  for  the  youngest  and  share  in  the 
household  duties,  thus  relieving  the  mother 
and  elder  children,  enabling  them  to  aid 
the  husband  and  father  in  the  field.  But  the 
positive  agricultural  or  industrial  work  which 
girls  of  from  ten  to  fifteen  can  do  is  insig- 
nificant, yet  they  eat  as  much  as  a grown 
[ 42  ] 


BABY-TENDERS 


person,  and  hence  comes  the  search  for  suit- 
able openings  for  such  workers.  This  is 
found  for  many  of  the  younger  girls  in  the 
homes  of  the  middle  and  upper  classes,  where 
they  go  as  komori  (baby-tenders). 

Girls  even  as  young  as  ten  leave  their 
homes  and  go  out  to  service.  They  receive 
food  and  lodging,  in  some  cases  a garment 
in  summer  and  one  in  winter,  and  sometimes 
in  addition  a small  cash  stipend.  A komori 
thus  is  usually  the  daughter  of  a poor  family 
who  goes  into  a well-to-do  family  to  aid 
the  mother  in  the  care  of  her  infant.  Her 
chief  duty  is  to  carry  the  infant,  sleeping 
or  waking,  on  her  back  for  many  consecu- 
tive hours  during  the  day.  In  addition  to 
this  she  aids  a little  in  the  household  work, 
washing  dishes  and  cleaning  the  house,  her 
hours  of  service  being  unlimited.  In  some 
families  she  may  be  called  on  at  any  hour 
of  the  night  to  carry  the  baby,  if  it  is  rest- 
less or  fretful  and  needs  to  be  “ jiggled  ” to 
sleep!  A komori  is  employed  by  the  year, 
but  usually  without  specific  contract,  her 
[ 43  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


parents  sometimes  receiving  a few  yen  1 when 
she  enters  upon  service.  Her  time  is  entirely 
at  the  disposal  of  her  mistress  and  she  goes 
to  no  school,  receives  no  regular  instruction, 
and  no  training  other  than  that  which  comes 
incidentally  from  association  with  members 
of  the  family.  Long  hours  each  day  are  spent 
on  the  street  with  an  infant  on  her  back, 
playing  hop-scotch  and  other  games  with 
other  komori. 

In  a few  places  efforts  are  being  made,  I 
am  told,  to  provide  these  baby-tenders  with 
educational  advantages,  but  the  movement  is 
as  yet  small.  Buddhists  are  said  to  be  par- 
ticularly active  in  this  matter. 

A blind  man  in  Matsuyama,  a Christian 
of  my  acquaintance,  put  out  one  of  his  daugh- 
ters to  service  as  a komori.  After  two  years 
of  such  life,  poverty-stricken  though  the 
family  was,  he  brought  her  home  again,  for 
the  child  of  fourteen,  so  far  from  learning 
anything  good,  was  learning  many  things 
bad  on  the  street,  and  was  being  dwarfed 

JA  yen  has  the  value  of  forty-nine  cents. 

[44] 


CARRYING  FAGOTS 
BABY-TENDERS 


■ :Jfe 


BABY-TENDERS 


in  mind  by  the  long  hours  when  she  was 
wholly  without  mental  stimulus.  The  life 
of  a komori  will  of  course  vary  much  with 
the  nature  of  the  family  by  which  she  is  em- 
ployed, but  at  best  the  service  cannot  fail  to 
stunt  the  grow'th  of  both  body  and  mind. 

I heard  not  long  since  of  a boy  who  be- 
came a komori.  His  father  had  died  a 
drunkard,  leaving  the  family  ruined  finan- 
cially. The  mother  and  children  wrere  ac- 
cordingly distributed  among  the  creditors  to 
work  off  his  debts.  The  little  boy  of  eight 
went  with  his  mother,  and,  so  long  as  she 
lived — some  three  years — life  was  endurable 
for  him,  but  after  her  death  he  was  made 
increasingly  miserable.  Long  hours  by  day 
and  many  interrupted  nights,  unkind  words, 
and  unutterable  loneliness  vexed  his  or- 
phaned spirit,  until  he  could  endure  it  no 
longer,  and  planned  to  run  away.  The  stern 
master  however  discovered  him  doing  up 
his  bundle,  and,  to  prevent  his  escape,  or- 
dered his  few  possessions,  even  his  cloth- 
ing, to  be  taken  away.  In  spite  of  this  he 
[45] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


slipped  out  one  night  in  the  darkness  and 
hid  in  a barn  in  a neighboring  village  until 
morning,  when  he  was  taken  pity  on  by  some 
children  who  shared  a kimono  or  two  with 
him,  and  so  he  got  away.  With  increasing 
years  he  led  a wild,  roving  life;  at  eighteen 
he  became  a murderer  and  was  imprisoned 
for  life,  escaping  the  death  penalty  on  ac- 
count of  being  a minor.  In  prison  he  first 
heard  the  Christian  gospel  of  God’s  for- 
giving love,  of  peace  and  hope  and  joy.  This 
“ good  news  ” he  accepted,  and  learned  to 
read,  that  he  might  read  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  he  committed  to  memory. 
Upon  the  death  of  the  Empress  Dowager,  in 
1896,  his  penalty,  with  that  of  many  other 
prisoners,  was  remitted,  and  now  for  four- 
teen years  he  has  been  living  a life  remark- 
ably fruitful  in  Christian  service. 

But,  to  return  to  our  subject,  we  note  that 
not  all  komori  are  children.  Superannuated 
old  women  who  have  neither  strength  nor 
brains  for  anything  else  also  act  in  this 
capacity,  their  conditions  of  service  and 

[46] 


BABY-TENDERS 


wages  being  the  same  as  those  of  girls.  I 
have  tried  to  get  some  idea  as  to  the  number 
of  komori  in  Japan,  but  have  been  able  to 
find  no  statistics.  One  gentleman  assures 
me  that  at  least  one  family  in  five  of  the 
middle  and  upper  classes  employs  a komori. 
As  the  number  of  families  in  Japan,  exclusive 
of  farmers,  is  3,981,940  (1912),  this  would 
make  about  796,000  komori;  but  many  well- 
to-do  farming  families  also  employ  komori, 
so  the  total  number  in  Japan  would  be  not 
far  from  1,000,000.  A lady  however  assures 
me  that  this  estimate  is  altogether  too  high, 
and  thinks  that  not  more  than  one  family 
in  twenty  has  the  means  to  employ  a komori. 
If  this  is  true,  then  the  number  is  in  the 
vicinity  of  250,000.  In  either  case,  the  sys- 
tem and  its  nature  are  clear,  and  the  num- 
bers of  children  sent  out  to  service  at  a 
tender  age  is  not  inconsiderable.  The  at- 
tention of  educators  and  parents  is  being 
directed  to  the  dangers  to  infants  of  this 
komori  system,  to  say  nothing  of  the  harm 
it  does  to  the  girls  themselves. 

[47] 


CHAPTER  VII 


HOUSEHOLD  DOMESTICS 

T)  Y the  time  a girl  is  fifteen  or  sixteen  she 
is  regarded  as  sufficiently  large,  strong, 
and  mature  to  enter  on  more  responsible 
work.  Among  the  several  fields  open  to  her 
is  that  of  gejo,  or  domestic  service,  of  which 
we  may  distinguish  two  varieties:  those  who 
serve  in  private  families  and  those  who  be- 
come maids  in  hotels  and  tea-houses.  A 
komori  may  gradually  work  into  the  position 
of  a domestic;  indeed,  in  the  majority  of 
homes  a komori  not  only  tends  the  baby  but 
aids  the  mother  in  her  household  work.  It 
is  only  in  the  homes  of  the  well-to-do  that 
both  gejo  and  komori  are  to  be  found.  The 
work  of  a gejo  consists  in  taking  the  brunt 
of  the  cooking,  housecleaning,  and  washing, 
serving  from  daybreak,  that  is,  from  five 
or  six  in  the  morning,  till  ten  or  eleven 

[48] 


HOUSEHOLD  DOMESTICS 


at  night.  Her  status  is  somewhat  better 
than  that  of  the  komori.  Her  hours  of 
service  however  are  long  and  taxing.  Her 
time  for  rest  is  after  the  family  has  retired 
for  the  night  and  before  they  rise  in  the 
morning.  Frequently  her  private  room  is 
the  front  hall,  or  entrance  room;  she  accord- 
ingly is  the  last  person  to  retire  and  the 
first  to  rise.  It  is  to  be  noted  however  that 
in  the  houses  of  the  middle  classes  in  the 
large  cities  there  is  usually  now  a small  room 
for  the  servant-girl.  The  gejo  draws  the 
water  from  the  well,  washes  the  rice,  lights 
the  fires,  cooks  and  lives  in  the  dingy  and 
usually  smoky  kitchen,  washes  the  clothes, 
aids  in  the  sewing,  and  has  no  relaxation  but 
an  occasional  festival.  Her  lot  is  truly 
pitiful. 

Besides  her  living  (eating  what  is  left 
from  the  family  meal),  she  usually  receives 
some  two  to  three  yen  per  month.  Recently 
however  some  have  been  receiving  even  as 
much  as  five  yen.  The  drudgery  and  mo- 
notony of  the  life  are  usually  such  that  the 
[49] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


opportunity  to  become  a factory  hand  is 
quickly  taken,  especially  as  the  cash  earn- 
ings are  relatively  large.  I am  told  by 
Japanese  ladies  that  the  problem  of  secur- 
ing domestics  in  the  cities  or  in  the  vicinities 
of  factories  is  becoming  serious. 

Of  course  the  average  domestic  has  no 
opportunity  nor  desire  for  mental  improve- 
ment. Having  enjoyed  no  education  to  speak 
of,  she  can  read  neither  papers  nor  books, 
nor  may  she  attend  meetings  fitted  to  culti- 
vate the  mind  or  promote  her  higher  life. 
Thus  she  is  controlled  by  the  culture  and 
mental  and  moral  traditions  of  the  home  in 
which  she  was  reared. 

Household  domestics  are  recruited  from 
farming  and  industrial  families.  They  earn 
their  living  for  from  four  to  six  years,  until 
their  parents  or  guardians  find  them  hus- 
bands; for  in  Japan  the  girl  has  practically 
nothing  to  say  as  to  whom  she  marries. 
Marriage  is  based,  not  on  mutual  acquaint- 
ance, much  less  on  mutual  attraction,  but 
wholly  on  the  judgment  of  parents  or  go- 
[50] 


HOUSEHOLD  DOMESTICS 


betweens,  and  is  from  first  to  last — if  it  is 
proper — a utilitarian  affair. 

It  thus  comes  to  pass  that  in  Japan  domes- 
tics are,  as  a rule,  young  unmarried  women. 
A domestic  in  her  thirties,  or  over,  is  rare, 
and  is  almost  certain  to  be  a widow  or  a di- 
vorced woman. 


[5i] 


CHAPTER  VIII 


HOTEL  AND  TEA-HOUSE  GIRLS 

A DISTINCT  class  of  domestics  is  that 
^ ^vvhich  serves  in  hotels,  tea-houses,  and 
restaurants.  Here  the  hours  of  labor  are 
longer,— from  four  or  five  in  the  morning 
till  midnight,  or  later.  My  attention  was 
early  called  to  their  hard  lot  by  observing 
that  the  poor  girl  who  was  serving  rice  for 
my  meal,  sitting  before  me  as  I ate,  often 
fell  into  a sleep,  from  which  I had  to  awaken 
her  to  get  my  rice.  Inquiry  would  show 
that  she  had  risen  at  four  o’clock  that  morn- 
ing, and  further  questioning  would  bring  the 
information  that  she  had  retired  the  previous 
night  at  midnight  or  later,  sometimes  even 
not  till  two  o’clock!  Rarely  do  these  girls 
get  five  hours  of  rest;  frequently  there  are 
not  more  than  three.  They  must  open  all 
the  amado  (sliding  wooden  shutters  which 
[52] 


HOTEL  AND  TEA-HOUSE  GIRLS 


protect  the  paper  “windows”),  and  get  the 
general  cleaning  done  before  the  first  guest 
rises,  and  must  continue  their  service  until 
late  into  the  night,  answering  the  calls  of 
the  guests,  till  the  last  one  has  retired.  In 
addition  to  the  usual  cleaning  of  the  rooms, 
which  is  really  not  much  of  an  undertak- 
ing, these  girls  carry  all  the  meals  of  all 
the  guests  from  the  kitchen  on  the  ground 
floor  to  their  rooms  on  the  second  or  third 
floors,  serve  them  while  they  eat,  and  carry 
away  the  trays  when  the  meal  is  completed. 
In  preparation  for  the  night  the  girls  bring 
out  the  heavy  futon  (quilts)  and  make  the 
“ beds  ” on  the  floor;  and  in  the  morning  re- 
move, fold,  and  lay  them  all  away  in  closets. 
The  work  of  a Japanese  hotel  is  relatively 
heavy  for  the  number  of  guests,  but  that 
which  is  most  taxing  is  the  long  hours  of 
service  and  the  insufficient  time  for  rest.  As 
in  the  poorer  homes,  so  in  the  poorer  and 
smaller  hotels,  the  girls  have  no  private 
rooms,  but  sleep  in  entryways  and  reception- 
rooms.  Of  course  they  have  neither  time  nor 
[53] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


opportunity  for  personal  culture,  nor  even 
for  recreation;  and  from  the  nature  of  their 
occupation,  is  it  strange  if  they  sometimes 
yield  to  the  solicitations  of  guests? 

These  girls  are  of  course  neither  profes- 
sional prostitutes  nor  geisha.  Yet  I was 
assured  by  a provincial  chief  of  police,  some 
years  ago  when  making  investigations,  that, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  police,  three  fourths  or 
four  fifths  of  the  girls  in  hotels  and  tea- 
houses are  virtually  prostitutes,  though  of 
course  they  have  no  licenses  and  are  subject 
to  no  medical  inspection.  Occasionally  they 
are  arrested  for  illegal  prostitution,  at  the 
instance  however  of  brothel  keepers.  Hotels 
and  tea-houses  take  pains  to  secure  pretty 
girls  for  servants,  in  order  to  make  their 
service  attractive.  It  is  a dreadful  state- 
ment to  make,  but,  if  I am  justified  in  judg- 
ing from  such  facts  as  have  come  to  my 
knowledge,  it  would  appear  that  few  travel- 
ing men  in  Japan  feel  any  special  hesitation 
in  taking  advantage — with  financial  compen- 
sation of  course — of  such  opportunities  as 
[54] 


HOTEL  AND  TEA-HOUSE  GIRLS 


are  afforded  them.  Hotels  give  the  girls 
their  food,  perhaps  two  gowns  yearly,  and 
generally  a small  payment  in  cash,  but  their 
principal  earnings  come  from  tips.  This 
makes  them  attentive  to  the  wants  of  the 
guests. 

There  are  many  first-class  hotels  through- 
out the  country,  but  chiefly  in  the  principal 
cities,  to  which  geisha  are  not  admitted,  but 
in  those  hotels  to  which  they  are  admitted 
the  green  country  girls  soon  learn  from  them 
the  brazen  ways  and  licentious  talk  that  are 
evidently  pleasing  to  many  of  the  guests. 
All  in  all  the  life  and  lot  of  the  hotel  and  tea- 
house girl  are  deplorable  indeed.  She  does 
differ  from  the  geisha  and  licensed  prosti- 
tute, however,  in  that  she  can  leave  her  place 
and  retire  to  her  country  home  at  any  time, 
being  held  by  no  contract  or  debt.  Hotel 
and  tea-house  girls  are  recruited  largely  from 
the  families  of  artizans  and  small  trades- 
people, living  in  interior  towns  and  villages; 
they  do  not  often  come  from  farming  fam- 
ilies, since  they  would  lack  the  regular  fea- 
[55] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


tures  and  light  complexion  desired  by  hotels. 
Their  family  pedigree  explains  in  part  this 
easy  virtue.  They  are  saved  from  more 
disaster  than  they  actually  meet,  because 
geisha  and  prostitutes  abound  and  are  more 
attractive. 

I remember,  one  summer  at  a little  coun- 
try hotel,  a girl  rushed  into  my  room  from 
a neighbor’s  in  order  to  escape  from  the 
urgency  of  a guest.  She  told  me  the  fol- 
lowing day  quite  freely  of  her  troubles,  of 
the  horrid  men  that  came  to  the  hotel,  and 
of  the  fact  that  most  of  the  girls  did  not 
mind  what  she  found  unendurable.  She  had 
been  there  but  a few  weeks  and  was  resolved 
to  go  home  as  soon  as  possible,  claiming  it 
was  better  to  starve  than  to  lead  such  a 
hard  and  especially  such  a disgusting  life. 
Realizing  that  I had  an  exceptional  oppor- 
tunity for  sociological  study,  I improved  the 
occasion  and  asked  many  questions.  When 
asked  for  her  reasons  for  not  responding  to 
the  solicitations  of  the  men,  she  replied  that 
it  was  the  fear  of  being  laughed  at  should 

[56] 


HOTEL  AND  TEA-HOUSE  GIRLS 


she  have  a child.  I could  not  learn  that  she 
had  ever  been  taught  to  regard  loose  sexual 
relations  before  marriage  as  immoral  or  as 
intrinsically  wrong.  In  her  mind  the  ques- 
tion had  no  connection  with  religion,  so  far 
as  I could  discover.  Her  refusal  was  based 
wholly  on  utilitarian  grounds. 

At  another  hotel  where  I often  stopped  I 
noticed  on  one  of  my  tours  that  an  especially 
attractive  girl  of  eighteen  or  nineteen,  who 
usually  waited  on  me,  was  no  longer  there. 
On  asking  her  substitute  what  had  become  of 
her,  I was  told  she  had  become  a regular 
prostitute,  having  found  she  could  earn  much 
more  money  that  way  than  at  the  hotel.  I 
asked  if  the  parents  had  not  opposed.  “ O 
no!  ” replied  the  girl,  “ the  parents  were  the 
ones  who  proposed  it  and  arranged  for  it.” 
I asked  the  substitute  if  she  herself  did  not 
regard  the  business  as  shameful  and  im- 
moral. She  looked  at  me  with  apparent  sur- 
prise, hardly  understanding  what  I meant, 
evidently  regarding  the  matter  entirely  as 
a financial  one. 


[57] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


Here  is  another  case.  A number  of  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  secretaries, 
tramping  in  the  Japanese  Alps,  were  con- 
vinced by  the  noises  one  night  at  the  hot 
springs  that  the  five  or  six  guides  and  porters 
were  indulging  in  licentiousness.  The  next 
night  it  came  out  around  the  camp-fire  that 
these  guides  and  porters  had  paid  the  hotel 
girls  five  sen1  (two  and  one-half  cents) 
each. 

Of  course  one  may  not  generalize  from 
three  cases.  But  three  such  cases,  together 
with  the  statement  of  the  chief  of  police,  and 
the  experience,  closely  corresponding  with 
my  own,  of  many  missionaries  who  have 
traveled  in  all  parts  of  Japan,  are  strong 
evidence.  I myself  do  not  think  that  guests 
often  solicit  the  girls,  nor  that  hotel  girls 
commonly  yield  to  the  requests  of  guests,  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  occasionally 
happens,  and  is  not  regarded  in  any  such 
way  by  either  the  men  or  the  women  as  an 


1 A sen  has  the  value  of  one-hundredth  of  a yen,  or  almost 
half  a cent. 


[58] 


HOTEL  AND  TEA-HOUSE  GIRLS 


Occidental  would  expect.  As  said  above, 
there  are  many  hotels  in  the  cities  from 
which  geisha  are  rigidly  excluded,  and 
where  without  doubt  the  relations  of  guests 
with  hotel  girls  are  above  criticism. 

It  is  an  impressive  fact  of  Japanese  civili- 
zation that  the  “ greenest  ” country  girls  can 
in  but  a few  short  weeks  of  hotel  service  be- 
come so  graceful  and  attractive.  That  in 
their  lives  which  to  the  Occidental  is  so  deep 
a sin  is  nothing  to  them.  Their  calm,  inno- 
cent eyes,  winning  ways,  and  gentle  conver- 
sation can  hardly  fail  to  impress  the  for- 
eigner. But  compared  with  the  girls  in 
their  homes  they  have  lost  that  air  of  mod- 
esty and  reserve  which  is  so  important  an 
element  in  the  charm  of  Japanese  woman- 
hood. The  hotel  and  tea-house  girl  belongs 
rather  to  the  geisha  class,  whose  loud,  harsh 
voices  and  artificial,  coarse  laughter  are  dis- 
tinguishing characteristics.  Girls  of  both 
these  classes  however  have  an  advantage 
enjoyed  by  no  other  women  in  Japan, 
namely:  that  of  meeting  large  numbers  of 
[59] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


men  of  various  occupations  and  interests. 
They  hear  varied  conversation  and  thus  be- 
come somewhat  acquainted  with  the  affairs 
of  the  outside  world,  which  makes  them  more 
intelligent  than  the  average  Japanese  woman, 
so  that  it  is  possible  to  carry  on  some  sort 
of  a conversation  with  them — a thing  prac- 
tically impossible  with  the  average  young 
woman  of  Japan. 

In  regard  to  the  numbers  of  hotel  domes- 
tics, I have  found  no  statistics,  but  have  no 
hesitation  in  venturing  an  estimate  of  many 
tens  of  thousands. 


[ 60  ] 


CHAPTER  IX 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 

AS  already  stated,  many  girls  prefer  fac- 
tory work  to  that  of  domestic  service, 
either  in  private  families  or  in  hotels.  From 
ancient  times  there  have  been  small  indus- 
trial enterprises,  employing  each  a few  hands 
in  various  lines  of  work,  such  as  the  reeling 
and  spinning  of  silk  and  cotton  thread  and 
the  weaving  of  cloth;  but  since  the  war  with 
China  there  have  arisen  enormous  factories, 
after  the  fashion  of  Western  lands,  which 
have  introduced  great  changes  in  the  indus- 
trial situation  and  in  the  condition  of  the 
working  classes. 

The  government  report  for  1912  shows 
that  there  were  863,447  individuals  employed 
in  15,119  factories  having  ten  or  more  hands 
each.  Of  these,  348,230  were  men  and  515,- 
217  were  girls  and  women.  In  addition  it 
[ 61  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


reports  427,636  weaving  houses,  having  733,- 
039  looms  and  employing  697,698  operators. 
No  statement  is  made  as  to  the  proportion 
of  the  sexes.  Remembering  that  the  gov- 
ernment statistics  take  no  account  of  indus- 
trial enterprises  employing  less  than  ten 
hands,  it  is  probably  safe  to  estimate  the 
number  of  women  employed  in  exclusively 
non-domestic  occupations  at  not  less  than  a 
million. 

We  are  not  concerned  however  with  the 
industries  themselves,  but  rather  with  the 
conditions  under  which  the  operatives  work 
and  the  effect  of  the  work  on  their  lives  and 
characters.  To  begin  with  the  more  pleas- 
ant side  of  the  question,  there  are  factories 
which  come  well  up  toward  the  ideal.  The 
terms  of  employment,  the  wages  paid,  the 
provisions  for  ill  health,  for  accident,  for 
long  service  and  old  age;  the  rooms  for  sleep- 
ing, eating,  and  recreation;  the  bathing  estab- 
lishments; the  education  given  to  those  who 
need  it;  the  public  lectures  and  religious  and 
ethical  instruction  given  at  fixed  times  in  the 
[62] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


public  halls  of  the  factories,  Buddhist  and 
Christian  teachers  being  impartially  invited; 
the  provisions  for  marriage  of  employees 
and  arrangements  that  each  couple  have  a 
separate  suite  of  rooms,  and  that  the  infants 
are  cared  for  while  the  mother  is  in  the  mill; 
these  and  other  provisions  show  that  the  best 
in  Japan  is  up  to  a high  level  of  excellence. 
Such  is  the  policy  of  the  Kanegafuchi  Com- 
pany, which  owns  a score  of  mills  in  different 
parts  of  Japan,  and  whose  success  moreover 
is  so  great  that  it  is  now  buying  up  less  suc- 
cessful competitors. 

For  several  years  this  company  has  set 
aside  annually  20,000  yen  ($10,000)  for  its 
relief  and  pension  fund  for  operatives.  In 
June,  1913,  in  addition  to  its  regular  appro- 
priation, it  voted  an  extra  $30,000  for  a 
“ welfare  promotion  fund.” 

The  president  of  the  Fuji  Cotton  Spinning 
Company  was  given  in  1913  a retiring  grant 
of  $50,000,  inasmuch  as  the  great  success  of 
this  company  had  been  due  to  his  skill  and 
energy.  He  however  presented  the  entire 

[ 63  ], 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


amount  to  the  “ employers’  relief  fund,  and 
it  was  decided  to  make  this  gift  the  nucleus 
of  a permanent  endowment  fund.” 

There  is  a silk  factory  in  Ayabe,  the  Gunze 
Seishi  Kwaisha,  whose  record  is  the  most 
wonderful  of  all.  It  is  managed  by  a Chris- 
tian, who  runs  it  entirely  with  a view  to  the 
benefit  of  the  workers  and  the  district.  No 
girls  of  that  district  go  elsewhere  for  work. 
Once  enrolled  as  members  of  the  working 
force  they  are  regularly  instructed,  both  in 
general  education  and  in  their  particular  du- 
ties; they  earn  good  wages,  keep  good  health, 
receive  Christian  instruction,  have  their 
regular  rest  days,  remain  the  full  number 
of  years,  help  support  the  family  and  earn 
enough  besides  to  set  themselves  up  in  mar- 
ried life,  and  are  now  beginning  to  send 
their  daughters  to  the  same  factory.  This 
Christian  factory  is  Christianizing  the  dis- 
trict. The  rising  moral  and  religious  life 
is  transforming  even  the  agricultural  and 
other  interests  of  the  region.  So  high  is  the 
grade  of  silk  thread  produced,  and  so  uni- 

[64] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


form  and  reliable  is  the  quality,  that  it  alone 
of  all  the  factories  in  Japan  is  able  to  ex- 
port its  product  direct  to  the  purchasing 
firm  in  the  United  States,  which  buys  the 
entire  output  at  an  annual  cost  of  about 
$500,000,  and  without  intermediate  inspec- 
tion at  Yokohama.  Here  we  have  a splen- 
did illustration  of  the  way  in  which  Chris- 
tian character  is  solving  the  problem  aris- 
ing from  the  low  moral  and  economic  ideals 
of  the  masses  of  Japan’s  working  classes.  As 
a rule  the  modern  industrial  worker  does 
not  put  moral  character  into  his  work;  and 
a wide  complaint  of  Occidental  importers 
of  Japanese  products  is  that  goods  are  not 
made  according  to  contract  or  sample.  This 
is  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  the  con- 
tinuous prosperity  of  any  Japanese  indus- 
try; for  as  soon  as  a large  demand  has  arisen 
in  foreign  lands  for  any  given  article,  its 
quality,  as  a rule,  has  rapidly  deteriorated. 
It  is  this  unreliability  of  Japanese  workmen 
that  makes  so  difficult  direct  exportation  to 
foreign  lands  without  the  supervision  of  Oc- 
[6;] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 

cidental  middlemen.  The  Christian  Gunze 
Seishi  Kwaisha  is  one  of  the  splendid  excep- 
tions which  shows  what  Japanese  workmen 
and  manufacturers  can  do,  when  controlled 
by  high  ideals  and  motives. 

Unfortunately  however  not  all  factories 
and  their  managers  have  the  same  spirit, 
aim,  or  skill.  Many  factories  are  the  exact 
opposite  in  every  respect  to  those  owned 
by  the  Kanegafuchi  and  Gunze  Seishi  com- 
panies. My  personal  attention  was  first 
called  to  the  heartrending  condition  of  servi- 
tude imposed  on  vast  numbers  of  girls  by 
reading,  a score  of  years  ago,  of  a fire  in  the 
dormitory  of  an  Osaka  factory.  The  dor- 
mitory was  in  a closed  compound,  whose 
doors  and  gates  were  carefully  locked  to  keep 
the  girls  from  running  away.  The  result 
was  the  death,  if  I remember  correctly,  of 
every  inmate,  of  whom  there  were  several 
score. 

My  personal  knowledge  in  regard  to  the 
conditions  of  life  and  work  of  factory  oper- 
atives was  secured  in  Matsuyama,  Shikoku, 
[66] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


a small  inland  city  of  some  forty  thousand 
inhabitants,  having  but  a single  cotton  thread 
spinning  factory.  It  had  no  dormitories  of 
its  own,  but  sent  its  operatives  to  certain 
specified  boarding-houses  in  the  town. 
Through  a Mr.  Omoto,  who  was  at  that 
time  working  in  the  factory,  and  whose  life 
story  is  given  in  the  final  chapter,  I became 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  conditions 
prevailing  in  Matsuyama.  In  1901,  when 
Mr.  Omoto  began  to  work  in  the  factory, 
he  was  amazed  to  see  how  many  were  the 
children  taking  their  turns  in  work  along 
with  the  older  girls  by  day  and  by  night. 
Large  numbers  ranged  from  seven  to  twelve 
years  old,  the  majority,  however,  being  from 
fifteen  to  twenty.  They  worked  in  two 
shifts  of  twelve  hours  each,  but  as  they  were 
required  to  clean  up  daily  they  did  not  get 
out  till  six-thirty  or  seven,  morning  and  night. 
The  only  holidays  for  these  poor  little  work- 
ers came  two  or  three  times  a month,  when 
the  shifts  changed;  but  even  then  there  was 
special  cleaning,  and  the  girls  who  had 

[67] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


worked  all  night  were  kept  till  nine  and  even 
ten  in  the  morning.  He  was  also  deeply 
impressed  with  their  wretched  condition  and 
immoral  life.  The  majority  of  them  could 
neither  read  nor  write;  their  popular  songs 
were  indecent,  and  they  were  crowded  to- 
gether in  disease-spreading  and  vermin-breed- 
ing, immoral  boarding-houses,  where  they 
were  deliberately  tempted.  Some  of  the 
landlords  were  also  brothel  keepers. 

Mr.  Omoto,  having  opportunity  as  offi- 
cial “ visitor  ” to  become  accurately  ac- 
quainted with  their  life,  told  me  in  detail 
the  conditions  which  have  been  briefly  sum- 
marized above.  The  boarding-houses  were 
only  for  girls  from  out  of  town.  They  had 
to  be  “ recognized  ” by  the  factory,  and  the 
girls  had  to  live  in  the  houses  to  which  they 
were  assigned.  Of  course  the  purpose  of 
these  houses  was  to  make  money.  The  finan- 
cial, hygienic,  intellectual,  and  moral  in- 
terests of  the  girls  were  wholly  ignored. 
They  were  crowded  into  ill-ventilated,  sun- 
less rooms,  the  two  shifts  occupying  the  same 
[68] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


rooms  alternately.  Personal  extravagance 
was  purposely  stimulated,  for  girls  in  debt  to 
the  keepers  were  compelled  to  stay  to  work 
off  their  debts.  Drinking  and  immoral  ca- 
rousings  were  their  only  recreation.  As 
might  be  expected,  sickness  was  common  and 
epidemics  frequent.  Many  girls  returned 
to  their  homes  after  a few  months  in  the 
“ city  ” ruined  not  only  in  health  but  in 
character, — premature  mothers  of  illegiti- 
mate children. 

The  conditions  of  the  factory  girls  in 
Matsuyama  were  not  unique.  Miss  J.  M. 
Holland,  a Church  of  England  missionary 
in  Osaka,  recently  told  me  some  of  her  ob- 
servations and  experiences.  She  has  devoted 
the  larger  part  of  her  time  for  fifteen  years 
to  work  among  factory  girls,  and  on  the 
whole  can  report  improvement.  When  she 
began  her  visits  to  the  factories,  the  condi- 
tions were  often  appalling.  It  was  not  un- 
common for  girls  working  on  the  night  shift 
to  be  kept,  on  one  pretext  or  another,  till 
noon  the  next  day,  making  eighteen  hours 

l 69] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


of  work.  The  conditions  of  work  and  life 
were  such  that  the  girls  frequently  ran  away, 
to  prevent  which  the  dormitories  were  vir- 
tually prisons  within  the  factory  compounds. 
The  girls  were  not  allowed  to  go  out  on 
the  streets,  were  given  no  opportunity  for 
recreation,  and  of  course  no  education.  They 
were  underfed,  overworked,  and  punished 
in  various  ways  by  their  overseers,  cuffed  and 
sometimes  whipped,  for  disobedience  or  blun- 
ders. The  daily  papers  of  those  days  had 
frequent  items  reporting  oppression  and  ill 
treatment;  to  be  deprived  of  wages  as  pun- 
ishment was  a common  experience;  police 
occasionally  discovered  girls  working  in  cel- 
lars and  vaults  as  punishment  for  misdeeds; 
girls  sometimes  escaped  in  their  night  clothes, 
and  on  a few  occasions  the  girls  rebelled 
and  did  personal  violence  to  the  overseers. 

But,  as  already  stated,  the  general  condi- 
tions are  now  much  better,  for  it  was  gradu- 
ally found  that  such  ill-treated  labor  was 
not  profitable.  “ Most  of  the  superintendents 
in  Osaka  are  now  splendid  men,  who  on  the 
[70] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


whole  take  good  care  of  the  girls  and  wish 
to  treat  them  honorably.”  The  crying  evils 
of  the  past  have  been  largely  done  away. 
Rest,  recreation,  education,  wages,  and  health 
are  receiving  careful  consideration  at  all  the 
leading  factories.  Still,  no  true  parent  would 
send  a daughter  to  work  in  such  a place,  un- 
less under  the  stress  of  dire  poverty.  There 
are  still  many  small  children  under  ten  years 
of  age,  whose  parents  make  false  statements 
in  regard  to  their  ages.  The  work  is  from 
six  in  the  morning  to  six  in  the  evening. 
This  means  rising  at  four-thirty  every  morn- 
ing for  work  on  the  day  shift.  Some  factories 
have  abolished  the  night  shift.  Fifteen  min- 
utes are  allowed  for  rest  in  the  middle  of  the 
forenoon,  thirty  minutes  for  lunch,  and  fif- 
teen minutes  again  in  the  afternoon,  giving 
thus  eleven  hours  of  steady  work  per  day 
and  the  same  per  night.  On  pay  days  the 
girls,  after  standing  eleven  hours,  have  to 
stand  in  file  from  one  to  three  hours  more,  ac- 
cording to  their  luck,  and  Miss  Holland  says 
that  such  long  hours  of  standing  result  in 
[ 7i  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


serious  organic  difficulties.  One  half  of  the 
girls  fail  to  work  out  their  three  years’  con- 
tract, returning  to  their  homes  before  time 
for  marriage,  seriously  injured,  if  not  com- 
pletely ruined,  physically.  So  long  as  this 
system  continues,  she  adds,  skilled  labor  is 
impossible.  While  some  factories  take  great 
care  that  girls  are  carefully  guarded  from 
evil,  others  exercise  no  control  whatever  over 
their  goings  and  doings.  One  factory  she 
named  as  allowing  its  girls  to  be  out  on  the 
streets  till  two  o’clock  in  the  morning.  It  in- 
sists on  only  two  and  a half  hours  of  sleep! 
The  difficulties  connected  with  private  board- 
ing-houses for  factory  girls  have  proved  so 
great  that  most  of  them  have  been  closed. 

One  of  the  tragic  aspects  of  factory  life  in 
Japan  is  the  large  number  of  what  would 
seem  to  us  avoidable  accidents,  due  to  the 
fact  that  the  girls  know  nothing  whatever 
about  machinery.  Large  factories  accord- 
ingly keep  surgeons  on  hand  to  care  for  the 
wounded.  Miss  Holland  says  that  in  one 
Osaka  factory  where  there  are  a thousand 
[72] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


operatives,  the  kind-hearted  surgeon  told  her 
they  had  an  average  of  fifty  accidents  daily 
which  needed  his  attention.  The  little  chil- 
dren especially  suffer,  often  losing  fingers. 
Not  long  since  five  fingers  were  clipped  off 
in  a single  day!  Miss  Holland  added  that, 
improved  though  the  conditions  are,  factory 
life  for  children  is  a “ murder  of  the  inno- 
cents.” As  a rule  the  food  provided  in  fac- 
tory dormitories  is  still  inadequate.  When 
asked  whether  corporal  punishment  is  still 
inflicted,  she  expressed  a doubt,  having  heard 
of  none  for  a long  time. 

In  her  conversation  Miss  Holland  ex- 
pressly limited  her  report  to  the  factories 
she  knows  in  Osaka.  The  question  arises 
whether  the  conditions  there  may  not  be  pe- 
culiar. May  not  factory  conditions  in  Yoko- 
hama and  Tokyo,  where  government  inspec- 
tion and  control  would  theoretically  be  most 
complete,  be  better  than  elsewhere?  The 
facts  do  not  seem  to  justify  such  a surmise. 
The  Kanegafuchi  Company  and  some  others 
have  good  factories  everywhere,  but  there 
[73] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


would  seem  also  to  be  bad  ones  every- 
where. 

A Japanese  book  on  Industrial  Education 
has  recently  been  published  by  a Mr.  R. 
Uno,  who,  for  fifteen  years,  has  been  a de- 
voted student  of  Japan’s  industrial  prob- 
lems. A summary  of  the  statistics  there  given 
appeared  in  May,  1914,  in  the  Tokyo  Ad- 
vertiser, from  which  I cull  the  following 
facts  and  figures. 

In  the  cotton  thread  and  spinning  facto- 
ries of  Japan,  there  are  81  girls  to  19 
men.  Out  of  1,000  girls,  386  are  over 
20  years  of  age,  317  are  from  17  to  20, 
191  are  from  15  to  16,  73  are  from  12 
to  14,  while  7 girls  out  of  a thousand  are 
under  12  years  of  age.  The  vast  majority 
of  factory  girls  live  in  the  factory  dormi- 
tories, which  are  of  enormous  size.  In  the 
region  of  Osaka  there  are  more  than  30,000 
girls  working  in  30  factories;  in  these  same 
factories  there  are  less  than  7,000  men. 
Three  of  these  factories  employ  over  3,000 
girls  each,  while  three  more  employ  2,000 
[74] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


and  upward.  These  girls  are  herded  to- 
gether in  enormous  dormitories,  disastrous 
both  to  health  and  morals.  Statistics  cov- 
ering a number  of  years  show  that  out  of 
every  1,000  girls,  270  work  less  than  six 
months  at  the  same  place;  200  less  than  one 
year,  179  less  than  two  years;  121  less  than 
three  years;  141  less  than  five  years,  and 
only  89  pass  the  five-year  period.  The  usual 
reason  for  this  extraordinary  fluctuation  of 
workers  is  that  the  girls  break  down  in 
health.  Government  statistics  declare  that 
out  of  every  100  girls  to  enter  upon  factory 
work  23  die  within  one  year  of  their  re- 
turn to  their  homes,  and  of  these  50  per 
cent,  die  of  tuberculosis.  But  it  is  also  as- 
serted that  60  per  cent,  of  the  girls  who 
leave  home  for  factory  work  never  return. 
Of  the  criminal  girls  arrested  in  Osaka  for 
a certain  period,  49  per  cent,  had  been  fac- 
tory hands.  As  to  the  education  of  factory 
girls  it  is  stated  that,  out  of  1,000,  the  num- 
ber that  had  completed  the  required  num- 
ber of  years  of  schooling  (six)  was  450,  while 
[75] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


385  were  entirely  without  education.  Out 
of  1,000  girls,  453  were  orphans.  Of  1,000 
girls,  61 1 came  from  farmers’  homes,  166 
from  those  of  fishermen,  and  55  from  mer- 
chant homes,  the  remaining  168  being  scat- 
tering. Factory  girls  earn  and  can  save  more 
than  almost  any  other  class.  The  average 
earnings  per  month  are  stated  to  be  $4.67. 
The  girl  pays  $1.20  per  month  for  food, 
which  is  less  than  the  actual  cost,  the  factory 
providing  the  balance,  namely,  $1.30.  The 
average  girl  sends  home  fifty  cents  per 
month.  Three  out  of  ten  girls  spend  the 
balance  entirely  on  clothes,  five  out  of 
ten  on  cakes  and  theaters,  while  two  out  of 
ten  save  it.  Such  are  some  of  the  statements 
made  by  Mr.  Uno  in  his  enlightening  book. 

In  the  September,  1910,  number  of  the 
Shin  Koron,  a monthly  magazine  published 
in  Tokyo,  is  an  article  by  Professor  Kuwada 
(of  the  Tokyo  Imperial  University)  entitled 
“ The  Pitiful  Environment  of  Factory 
Girls.”  He  gives  a detailed  statement  of  the 
conditions  of  factory  workers,  in  which  he 

[76] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


estimates  the  number  of  female  laborers  in 
factories  containing  ten  or  more  hands  at 
700,000,  of  whom  ten  per  cent,  are  under 
fourteen  years  of  age.  In  tobacco  factories 
ten  per  cent.,  in  match  factories  twenty  per 
cent.,  and  in  glass  factories  thirty  per  cent, 
of  the  girls  are  under  ten  years  of  age.  He 
vigorously  condemns  the  situation  as  threat- 
ening the  future  of  the  working  class,  whose 
prospective  mothers  are  thus  being  destroyed. 
The  efforts  of  the  government  during  recent 
years  to  enact  factory  laws  have  been  success- 
fully thwarted  thus  far,  says  Professor  Ku- 
wada,  by  shortsighted,  selfish  capitalists.  The 
girls  are  brought  in  from  their  country  homes 
by  false  promises.  They  are  told  of  the 
beautiful  sights  to  be  seen,  theaters  to  be 
visited,  the  regular  Sunday  rest,  and  even 
of  the  splendid  care  and  education  they  will 
receive  from  the  factory.  There  is  also 
stealing  of  expert  workers  from  one  factory 
by  the  artful  stratagems  of  another.  There 
are  factories  which  resort  to  devices  for  de- 
frauding helpless  operatives.  In  one  town 

[77] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


where  there  are  many  factories,  it  is  cus- 
tomary to  work  overtime  by  setting  back 
the  hands  of  the  clock.  To  conceal  this  from 
the  operatives,  no  factory  blows  its  whistles  1 
Some  factories  do  not  give  time  for  the  girls 
to  rest  even  while  they  eat,  but  require  them 
to  work  with  the  right  hand  while  they  eat 
with  the  left.  Night  work  in  which  both 
male  and  female  operatives  are  engaged  to- 
gether is  most  demoralizing.  Punishment  of 
various  kinds  is  administered.  In  addition 
to  fines,  in  some  places  the  girls  are  im- 
prisoned in  dark  rooms,  rations  are  reduced, 
their  arms  are  bound  and  the  lash  applied 
freely,  and  in  extreme  cases  they  are  stripped 
to  the  waist  and  marched  through  the  factory 
among  young  men  and  girls,  bearing  a red 
flag  tied  to  the  back!  Superintendents  are 
invariably  men. 

So  appalling  was  the  statement  made  by 
Professor  Kuwada  that  I could  scarcely  be- 
lieve him  in  all  the  details,  particularly  in 
regard  to  the  use  of  the  lash  and  the  strip- 
ping to  the  waist.  I accordingly  wrote  both 

[78] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


to  him  and  to  Professor  Abe  of  Waseda  Uni- 
versity, who  has  made  special  study  of  the 
social  problems  and  conditions  of  industry. 
Professor  Kuwada,  I learned,  has  been  a 
careful  student  of  social  and  industrial  con- 
ditions for  nearly  twenty  years,  and  is  one 
of  the  leaders  in  the  Society  for  the  Study 
of  Social  Politics,  composed  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  university  professors  and  high  gov- 
ernment officials.  This  society  was  organized 
to  aid  the  government  in  its  efforts  to  secure 
social  and  industrial  reforms.  In  reply  to 
my  inquiries  Professor  Kuwada  says  that 
most  of  the  facts  given  concerning  silk  fac- 
tories he  has  himself  observed.  Those  con- 
cerning cotton  spinning  factories  he  has  de- 
rived from  reliable  sources,  chiefly  from  the 
officers  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  and 
Commerce,  who  are  especially  engaged  in 
making  investigations  in  regard  to  industrial 
conditions.  Much  of  the  testimony  rests  on 
the  statements  of  the  girls  themselves.  Some 
of  the  facts  come  from  local  police  and  some 
from  the  published  reports  of  the  Depart- 
[79] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


ment  of  Agriculture  and  Commerce.  “ The 
article  in  the  Shin  Koran  may  therefore  be 
regarded  as  semi-official,”  says  Professor 
Abe.  Since  the  appearance  of  the  article  re- 
ferred to  above,  no  reply  has  been  made  to 
it  by  factory  owners  or  managers.  As  to 
the  stripping  of  a girl  to  the  waist  and  march- 
ing her  through  the  factory  filled  with 
operatives,  male  and  female,  Professor  Ku- 
wada  was  told  this  by  the  girl  herself.  Un- 
der such  circumstances,  it  is  difficult  to  doubt 
the  testimony.  Nor  is  it  probable  that  the 
cases  cited  are  absolutely  unique,  although 
I think  it  highly  probable  that  such  extreme 
indignities  and  punishments  are  rare, — they 
are  so  out  of  keeping  with  the  whole  trend 
of  Japanese  civilization  and  culture.  Mrs. 
Binford,  a missionary  in  Mito,  assures  me, 
however,  that  altering  the  hands  of  the  clock 
is  a practise  known  to  her.  Testimony  is 
widespread  that  girls  are  secured  for  facto- 
ries by  all  kinds  of  false  statements. 

In  view  of  the  frightful  conditions  of  in- 
dustrial labor  thus  indicated  by  Mr.  Uno  and 
[Bo] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


Professor  Kuwada,  it  is  amazing  that  the 
Diet  has  refused  on  several  successive  occa- 
sions to  enact  suitable  laws.  The  government 
began  to  realize  in  1898  the  need  for  legis- 
lation on  these  matters.  A bill  which  was 
drafted  and  presented  in  1902  was  rejected, 
as  were  also  three  subsequent  bills.  The 
chief  feature  of  the  bill  presented  during 
the  winter  of  1910-11  was  the  provision 
that  no  factory  may  employ  girls  under 
twelve,  and  that  girls  of  any  age  and  youth 
under  sixteen  may  not  be  kept  at  work  for 
more  than  twelve  hours  per  day,  nor  be  made 
to  do  night  work  without  “ special  reason.” 
While  some  provisions  of  this  bill  were  en- 
acted and  others  amended,  those  considered 
most  important  by  social  reformers  and  by 
the  government  were  virtually  rejected.  The 
bill  was  indeed  passed,  but  with  the  added 
provision  that  the  important  clauses,  relative 
to  ages  and  night  work,  be  inoperative  for  a 
period  of  fifteen  years  (!)  in  order  to  give 
time  to  the  factories  involved  to  adjust  them- 
selves to  the  new  conditions.  Since  that  time 
[81  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


no  further  factory  legislation  has  been  en- 
acted. Is  it  not  astounding  that  in  a land  on 
the  whole  so  progressive  as  Japan  the  diffi- 
culty of  securing  reform  should  be  found  in 
the  Diet?  The  administration  at  this  point 
is  ahead  of  the  representatives  of  the  people, 
as  it  is  indeed  in  many  other  respects.  The 
fact  is,  as  Professor  Kuwada  points  out,  that 
the  “ representatives  ” in  both  the  lower  and 
upper  houses  represent  the  financial  inter- 
ests of  capitalists,  rather  than  the  human 
interests  of  the  masses. 

But  the  reader,  in  his  indignation  over  the 
situation  of  factory  workers  in  Japan,  should 
remember  that  Japan  is  no  exceptional  sin- 
ner among  the  nations.  Christian  England 
and  America  have  had  conditions  equally 
bad,  and  possibly  worse.  Dr.  Washington 
Gladden,  in  his  article  on  “ The  Reason  for 
the  Unions,”  in  the  New  York  Outlook  for 
March,  1911,  makes  the  following  statements 
in  regard  to  the  condition  of  labor  in  Eng- 
land in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Men  and  women  stood  daily  at  their 
[82] 


AT  WORK  IN  A SILK  FACTORY 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


tasks,  from  twelve  to  fourteen  and  fifteen 
hours;  a working  day  of  sixteen  hours  was 
not  an  unheard-of  thing.  Government  re- 
ports of  this  period  show  that  children  of 
five  and  six  years  of  age  were  frequently 
employed  in  factories.  “Nor  was  this  un- 
measured abuse  of  child  labor  confined  to 
the  cotton,  silk,  and  wool  industries.  . . . 
The  report  of  1842  is  crammed  with  state- 
ments as  to  the  fearful  overwork  of  girls 
and  boys  in  iron  and  coal  mines,  which  doubt- 
less had  been  going  on  from  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century;  . . . Children  could  get 
about  where  horses  and  mules  could  not. 
Little  girls  were  forced  to  carry  heavy 
buckets  of  coal  up  high  ladders,  and  little 
girls  and  boys  instead  of  animals  dragged 
the  coal  bunkers.  Women  were  constantly 
employed  underground  at  the  filthiest  tasks. 
Through  all  this  period  the  wages  gravitated 
downward  and  family  income  was  steadily 
lowered,  while  the  cost  of  food  increased. 
The  homes  of  the  workers  were  ruined.  In 
a certain  congested  district  there  lived  26,830 

[ 83] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


persons  in  5,366  families,  three  fourths  of 
which  possessed  but  one  room  each.  The 
rooms  were  without  furniture,  without  every- 
thing; two  married  couples  often  shared  the 
same  room.  In  some  cases  there  was  not 
even  a heap  of  straw  on  which  to  sleep.  In 
one  cellar  the  pastor  found  two  families  and 
a donkey;  two  of  the  children  had  died  and 
the  third  was  dying.”  And  these  conditions 
existed,  not  in  days  of  industrial  depression, 
but  in  flush  times;  business  was  booming  and 
wealth  accumulating  in  the  hands  of  factory 
owners  and  employers. 

Many  of  the  conditions  of  industrial  work- 
ers even  in  the  United  States  to-day  are  heart- 
rending in  the  extreme.  Who  could  read 
of  the  strike  of  the  shirt-waist  makers  of 
New  York  in  the  winter  of  1909-10  without 
deep  indignation  over  the  conditions  under 
which  those  brave  girls  worked,  and  against 
which  they  rebelled?  The  National  Com- 
mittee on  Child  Labor  reported  in  the  spring 
of  1911  that  there  were  over  60,000  children 
in  the  factories  of  the  United  States,  mostly 

[84] 


FACTORY  GIRLS  AND  WOMEN 


in  the  South.  Before  condemning  Japan 
unduly,  Occidentals  should  remember  that 
their  own  record  is  none  too  bright. 

If  comparison  is  to  be  made  however 
between  Japan  and  the  West,  it  may  be  made 
along  other  lines.  The  West  fell  into  its 
industrial  difficulties  with  no  example  from 
which  to  learn.  But  this  is  not  true  of  Japan. 
She  can  easily  learn  the  lesson  of  a century 
of  Western  experience;  but  she  seems  slow 
to  do  it.  Then  again  in  Japan  it  is  the 
government  that  is  feebly  leading,  and  the 
official  popular  representatives  who  are  both 
blind  and  resisting,  whereas  in  the  West  the 
great  movements  for  industrial  reform  are 
movements  of  the  people  themselves,  backed 
up  and  oftentimes  led  by  enlightened  hu- 
manitarian and  Christian  popular  opinion. 
In  the  West,  the  churches  are  fairly  in  line 
with  forward  social  movements,  whereas  in 
Japan,  Shintoism,  Confucianism,  and  even 
Buddhism  are  apparently  wholly  indifferent 
to  the  economic  and  even  ethical  condition  of 
the  nation’s  toilers.  Furthermore,  we  are 

[85] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


seeing  to-day  in  Japan  the  strange  phenome- 
non of  one  section  of  the  government  seeking 
to  ameliorate  social  and  economic  conditions, 
and  at  the  same  time  another,  seemingly  mor- 
tally afraid  of  allowing  the  people  either 
to  discuss  these  matters  or  to  attempt  reform 
movements  themselves.  Labor  unions  are 
strictly  forbidden,  and  any  person  advocating 
socialism  is  under  strict  police  surveillance. 
Strikes  are  illegal  and  their  promoters  are 
liable  to  criminal  punishment.  Anomalous 
as  it  may  be,  the  government  seems  to  be 
seeking  to  destroy  that  enlightened  popular 
opinion  on  which  it  must  rely  for  the  effi- 
cient enforcement  of  its  own  plans  for  social 
betterment  of  the  working  classes. 

I have  dwelt  at  considerable  length  on 
the  conditions  of  factory  workers,  for  later 
on  I shall  describe  a sociological  experiment 
among  this  class. 


[86] 


CHAPTER  X 


GEISHA  (HET/ERJE) 

THE  word  geisha  means  an  “ accom- 
plished person.”  A geisha  is  invariably 
a young  woman  who  has  had  years  of  train- 
ing fitting  her  to  provide  social  entertain- 
ment for  men.  The  gei  acquired  are  skill  in 
playing  the  samisen  (a  three-stringed  guitar), 
singing  catching  ditties,  taking  part  in  con- 
versation and  repartee,  and  in  “ dancing,” 
which  is  to  the  Western  mind  rather  a highly 
conventional  posturing,  with  deft  manipu- 
lations of  the  inevitable  fan.  Years  of  ex- 
acting and  diligent  work  are  required  for 
proficiency  in  these  “ gei,” — the  Geisha 
School  in  Kyoto  provides  a course  of  six  or 
seven  years. 

According  to  the  Japanese  ideal,  geisha 
singing  must  be  shrill,  and  to  secure  this 

[87] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


quality  the  voice  is  purposely  strained  till 
it  is  “ cracked.”  Girls  eight  to  ten  years  old 
are  sometimes  given  their  “ singing  lessons  ” 
in  the  frosty  air  of  winter  mornings  before 
sunrise,  or  late  at  night,  in  order  that  they 
may  take  cold  in  the  throat  and  then,  by  per- 
sistent, vigorous  use,  the  voice  is  “ broken  ” 
for  life.  Training  in  dancing  and  samisen 
playing  is  also  prolonged  and  severe,  for  no 
pains  are  spared  in  efforts  to  excel.  These 
efforts  however  are  due,  not  to  the  will  or 
desire  of  the  maiko,  the  poor  little  girl  who 
is  being  trained,  but  to  the  persistence  of  her 
owner. 

Only  daughters  of  the  very  poor  are  se- 
cured for  this  outwardly  beautiful  and  at- 
tractive, but  inwardly  repulsive,  soul-destroy- 
ing life.  Practically  speaking,  geisha  are 
the  property  of  the  old  women  who  support 
and  educate  them  through  the  years  of  their 
childhood,  and  who  rent  them  out  by  the 
hour  for  the  entertainment  of  men  at  social 
functions.  Such  functions  would,  indeed,  be 
inane  without  geisha  to  serve  the  meals  in 
[88] 


GEISHA 


their  dainty  ways,  to  fill  the  sake  1 cups  for 
guests,  to  share  in  conversation  by  adding  the 
spice,  to  provoke  laughter,  themselves  laugh- 
ing loudly  and  often,  and  at  the  proper  time, 
to  present  their  music,  their  singing,  and 
their  dancing.  Dressed  in  faultless  style,  in 
richest  silks  and  brilliant  colors,  geisha  are 
moving  pictures  which  have  charmed  genera- 
tions of  Japanese  men  and,  in  recent  decades, 
many  foreigners.  Japanese  political  party 
dinners  and  consultations  are  often  held  in 
restaurants,  where  geisha  make  the  fun  and 
pour  the  wine.  If  foreign  guests  are  to  be 
entertained  by  wealthy  individuals,  by  com- 
panies, or  even  by  cities,  the  inevitable  geisha 
is  there,  and  is  presented  as  a characteristic 
product  of  Japan — which  she  truly  is.  But 
while  there  is  about  her  a certain  charm  of 
manner  and  dress,  to  one  who  watches  her 
face,  looking  for  traces  of  a soul,  the  story 
is  all  too  plain — behind  the  harsh  laugh  and 
stoical  face  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognize 

J Sake  (pronounced  sah'-kc)  is  the  fermented  liquor  of 
Japan,  made  from  rice. 


[89] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


that  there  is  an  empty  and  often  a bleed- 
ing heart. 

The  lives  of  these  girls  are  pitiful  in  the 
extreme.  Chosen  from  among  the  families 
of  the  poor  on  the  basis  of  their  prospective 
good  looks  and  ability  to  learn,  they  leave 
their  homes  at  an  early  age  and  are  sub- 
jected to  the  severe  drill  already  outlined. 
They  go  through  their  lessons  with  rigid, 
mechanical  accuracy.  In  public  they  appear 
in  gorgeous  robes,  their  faces  painted  and 
powdered,  artificiality  dominating  everything 
about  them, — clothing,  manners,  and  smiles. 
As  a rule  nothing  is  done  to  develop  their 
minds,  and  of  course  the  cultivation  of  per- 
sonal character  is  not  even  thought  of.  They 
are  instructed  in  flippant  conversation  and 
pungent  retort,  that  they  may  converse  in- 
terestingly with  the  men,  for  whose  enter- 
tainment they  are  alone  designed.  The  songs 
learned,  some  of  the  dances  performed,  and 
the  conversational  repertoire  acquired  are 
commonly  reported  to  be  highly  licentious, 
but  these  are  the  gei  that  best  please  the  men, 
[ 90] 


GEISHA 


to  whom  they  are  open  for  private  engage- 
ments from  the  time  they  are  eighteen  years 
of  age.  If,  however,  a geisha  is  exceptionally 
beautiful,  her  owner  does  not  allow  her  to 
enter  on  such  duties,  for  experience  has  shown 
that  her  beauty  is  soon  lost  in  this  way,  and 
with  it  her  highest  earning  capacity. 

Many  geisha  undoubtedly  develop  consid- 
erable personal  ability.  The  severe  drill  un- 
dergone could  hardly  fail  to  call  forth  their 
powers  of  mind,  and  intimate  association 
with  educated  and  quasi-cultured  men  serves 
further  to  stimulate  their  mental  faculties. 
In  native  ability  too  they  are  not  lacking, 
though  drawn  from  the  lowest  classes  of  so- 
ciety, for,  as  will  soon  be  more  fully  ex- 
plained, they  sometimes  possess  strains  of 
high  lineage.  The  national  custom,  which 
represses  the  normal  intellectual  development 
and  social  instincts  of  cultured,  respectable 
women,  is  removed  from  this  one  class,  which 
is  favored  by  many  circumstances.  They  are 
not  subjected  to  the  debauching  excesses  usual 
with  the  ordinary  prostitute,  nor  to  humili- 
[9i  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


ating  medical  inspection.  They  are  not  con- 
scious of  popular  disapproval,  but  on  the 
contrary  are  the  beauties  of  the  town,  their 
photographs  for  sale  on  every  street.  Indeed 
one  well-informed  gentleman  told  me  that 
probably  ten  per  cent,  of  the  geisha  enter 
the  calling  by  their  own  choice.  No  wonder 
that  from  time  to  time  the  tale  is  told  of 
some  Japanese  man  of  social  position  falling 
under  the  spell  of  an  accomplished  geisha, 
whom  he  prefers  to  any  of  the  silent,  pas- 
sive, timid,  incompetent  girls  selected  for 
him,  who  in  all  probability  have  never  talked 
with  any  man  except  immediate  relatives  or 
tradesmen.  The  national  custom  which  pre- 
determines the  social  incompetence  of  the 
majority  of  cultured  women  compensates  for 
the  loss  by  providing  this  geisha  class.  Not 
until  Japanese  ladies  can  hold  their  own  in 
social  life  will  the  vocation  of  the  geisha  be 
ended. 

Among  the  surprises  one  meets  in  study- 
ing the  geisha  question  is  the  fact  that  not 
a few  of  the  girls  have  features  which  in- 
[ 92  ] 


O HAMAYU  (GEISHA) 
Most  celebrated  in  Tokyo 


GEISHA 


dicate  distinguished  ancestry.  My  explana- 
tion for  this  fact  is  the  further  fact  that  for 
ages  the  standards  of  moral  life  in  Japan 
have  allowed  large  freedom  of  sexual  rela- 
tions. The  result  is  that  in  the  lowest  classes, 
from  which  geisha  are  recruited,  there  run 
strains  of  gentle  blood.  It  thus  comes  to 
pass  that  now  in  the  midst  of  coarse  sur- 
roundings and  in  deep  poverty  there  are  born 
of  parents  manifestly  belonging  to  the  low- 
est class,  children  of  exceptional  beauty, 
fitted,  so  far  as  individual  appearance  indi- 
cates, to  belong  to  the  highest  ranks  of  so- 
ciety. Whether  or  not  this  suggested  ex- 
planation is  correct  as  a matter  of  historic 
fact  I am  not  able  to  say,  but  I offer  it  as 
the  most  plausible  that  has  occurred  to  me. 

Parents  in  this  class  of  society  much  pre- 
fer daughters  to  sons,  for  they  are  likely  to 
become  valuable  sources  of  income.  At  eight 
or  nine,  those  destined  for  the  “ accom- 
plished ” calling  are  put  into  the  care  of  some 
experienced  geisha  and  a mutual  contract  is 
given  for  a specific  period  (five  or  six  years), 

[93] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


during  which  the  child  is  termed  a maiko 
(dancing  girl).  As  a rule  the  parents  re- 
ceive a small  sum  at  the  beginning  of  this 
first  period.  The  owner  undertakes  to  sup- 
port and  train  the  girl,  and  expects  to  profit 
by  her  earnings.  By  the  time  the  girl  is 
fifteen  or  sixteen  she  has  finished  her  appren- 
ticeship, when,  if  she  has  exceptional  graces 
and  charms  likely  to  win  her  a place  in 
the  highest  social  gatherings,  she  will  secure 
quite  a competency  (many  hundreds  of  yen, 
and  in  some  cases  even  a few  thousand)  for 
the  keeper  and  parents.  On  the  expiration 
of  the  first  contract  a new  one  is  made,  and 
so  on,  until  the  girl  has  passed  her  prime  and 
is  no  longer  sought  for  entertainments.  If 
in  the  interval  she  has  not  become  the  con- 
cubine of  some  rich  man,  she  then  either  re- 
turns to  her  poor  home  or,  what  is  more 
usual,  becomes  a servant  in  a hotel  or  tea- 
house. If  her  ability  is  exceptional,  she  may 
set  up  as  geisha  keeper,  train  other  maiko, 
employ  younger  geisha,  and  so  make  her 
living. 


[94] 


GEISHA 


The  great  ambition  of  a geisha  is  to 
“ catch  ” some  wealthy  man  of  rank  with 
her  charms  and  become  his  concubine.  My 
informant  estimates  that  this  is  what  hap- 
pens to  perhaps  one  half  of  the  geisha.  In 
such  cases  the  man  pays  down  a handsome 
sum  to  the  owner,  who  sends  part  of  it  to 
the  parents.  Thus  he  buys  his  concubine, 
whom  he  usually  keeps  in  a villa,  not  his 
home.  I have  asked  if  geisha  ever  become 
true,  legal  wives  and  am  told  “ only  very 
rarely.”  But,  if  they  do,  are  they  cordially 

received  by  the  man’s  kindred?  “Oh,  nol 

* 

that  is  not  possible,”  is  the  repeated  answer. 
The  effects  of  her  training  can  never  be  ob- 
literated, and  the  new  relatives  cannot  forget 
the  despicable  class  from  which  she  comes, 
and  the  calling  by  which  she  has  gained  her 
husband.  She  may  become  indeed  refined 
and  altogether  correct  in  manner,  but  the 
taint  of  her  origin  as  a rule  adheres  to  her. 
Then  too  the  years  of  immoral  life  before 
she  won  her  husband  make  it  a rare  thing 
for  a geisha  to  have  children,  and  childless 
[95  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


wives  in  Japan  are  not  at  a premium,  for  the 
prime  purpose  of  marriage  is  the  mainte- 
nance of  the  family  line. 

Foreigners  commonly  say  that  geisha  are 
not  prostitutes.  It  is  true  they  are  not  li- 
censed, that  is  to  say,  professional,  prosti- 
tutes in  the  eye  of  the  law,  nor  are  they 
procurable,  as  are  regular  prostitutes,  by  the 
average  man,  for  the  expense  is  too  great. 
But  the  chief  of  police  already  referred  to, 
and  many  Japanese  of  whom  I have  inquired, 
insist  that  a large  proportion  of  geisha  are 
corrupt — two  geisha  keepers  have  estimated 
the  proportion  as  high  as  ninety  per  cent. 
Geisha  who  decline  engagements  leading  to 
immorality  are  rare  indeed,  and  for  that  very 
reason  are  unpopular. 

But  better  than  generalized  statements  is 
the  story  of  an  actual  life.  There  lives  to- 
day in  Hyogo  a paralytic  whose  influence 
through  her  words,  newspaper  articles,  and 
books  is  widely  felt  throughout  central  Japan. 
She  is  one  of  the  few  girls  who,  though 
trained  as  a geisha,  refused  to  follow  the 
[96] 


GEISHA 


calling.  The  story  of  her  life  is  worthy  of 
more  than  passing  mention. 

Her  father  died  in  her  infancy,  and  shortly 
after  the  death  of  her  mother,  who  had  mar- 
ried, her  stepfather  likewise  married  again. 
These  stepparents,  deciding  to  have  her  be- 
come a geisha,  expended  much  time  and 
money  on  her  training. 

When  she  was  prepared  at  sixteen  years 
of  age,  she  was  entrusted  to  a woman  whose 
business  it  was  to  find  employment  for  geisha 
in  hotels  and  tea-houses.  This  woman  took 
her  to  a house  in  Osaka,  where  there  were 
already  many  geisha  and  regular  prostitutes. 
Learning  the  nature  of  the  duties  expected 
of  her,  she  positively  refused  to  comply.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  it  was  twenty  miles 
to  her  home  and  that  there  were  but  two  sen 
in  her  pocket,  she  escaped  from  the  hotel, 
spent  one  sen  on  bridge  toll,  one  sen  on  a 
lunch,  and  succeeded  in  walking  all  that  dis- 
tance alone,  reaching  home  after  midnight, 
the  home  from  which  she  had  been  sent  out 
with  hopes  that  she  should  win  for  her  step- 
[97] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


parents  an  ample  support.  The  reception  ac- 
corded her  can  be  fancied.  She  held  firmly 
however  to  her  resolve,  preferring  poverty 
and  hard  toil  to  luxury  and  fine  clothing 
along  with  that  service  on  which  these  were 
conditioned.  Work  was  found  for  her  in  a 
factory,  then  as  a family  servant,  and  finally 
at  a small  tea-house,  where  during  the  win- 
ter she  was  especially  exposed  to  the  cold. 
An  attack  of  rheumatism  developed  into  par- 
alysis. With  no  hope  of  recovery  she  longed 
for  death,  for  her  stepparents,  considering 
the  case  hopeless,  neglected  to  care  for  her 
properly,  although  she  was  so  helpless.  She 
could  not  feed  herself,  nor  even  crawl  to  the 
well  in  which  she  wished  to  drown  herself, — 
the  final  resource  of  many  a despairing  Japa- 
nese woman.  But,  by  a strange  series  of 
circumstances,  or  should  we  not  say  by  a 
merciful  Providence?  a Christian  man  dis- 
covered and  befriended  her,  told  the  story 
of  Jesus,  and  revealed  the  Savior.  Her  faith 
soon  became  so  strong  and  her  words  proved 
so  thoughtful  and  helpful  to  those  Christian 

[98] 


GEISHA 


friends  who  came  to  see  her,  that  her  influ- 
ence began  to  spread.  She  found  she  could 
manage  to  write  with  her  crippled  hand,  and 
as  what  she  wrote  was  like  her  spoken  words, 
simple  and  strong,  it  soon  found  its  way  into 
print.  She  was  finally  led  to  write  the  story 
of  her  life,  and  this  book,  with  other  articles 
written  by  her,  has  afforded  a small  income, 
which  with  additional  help  from  friends  has 
secured  a comfortable  home  for  herself  and 
the  family  of  which  she  is  now  the  center. 
Her  name  is  Zako  Aiko,  and  she  lives  in 
Hyogo. 

A few  geisha,  coming  under  Christian  in- 
fluences, have  been  converted,  and  so  far  as 
I know,  such  persons  leave  the  calling  alto- 
gether, as  incompatible  with  Christian  prin- 
ciples. But  condemnation  of  the  whole 
geisha  system  is  not  confined  to  Christians. 
Many  Japanese,  entirely  outside  our  Chris- 
tian circles,  regard  it  as  a disgrace  to  the 
country,  and  wish  the  whole  business,  along 
with  licensed  prostitution,  concealed  from 
public  view.  For  instance,  a man  of  high 
[99] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


official  rank,  president  of  a large  institution, 
tells  me  he  regrets  that  there  is  no  first-class 
Japanese  hotel  in  Kyoto  at  which  he  may  en- 
tertain foreign  guests  in  Japanese  style,  except 
where  geisha  serve  the  meals.  Rather  than 
countenance  the  geisha  system,  he  prefers  to 
take  his  guests  to  a hotel  where  the  service 
is  not  so  perfect  but  where  the  women  em- 
ployed are  above  suspicion.  He  deplored  the 
fact  one  day  that  all  foreigners  coming  to 
Kyoto  in  the  spring  visit  the  Miyako  odori, 
commonly  known  in  English  as  the  “ Cherry 
Dance.”  I myself  have  seen  this  perform- 
ance more  than  once,  and  found  nothing  ob- 
jectionable in  either  the  so-called  dancing, 
its  setting,  or  its  accompaniments.  It  never- 
theless affords  opportunity  for  the  display 
of  something  like  eighty  or  ninety  geisha, 
and  helps  to  maintain  the  business  and  the 
system.  As  indicating  the  status  of  geisha 
in  the  best  Japanese  society,  it  is  significant 
that  all  geisha  are  rigidly  excluded  from 
every  entertainment  where  any  member  of 
the  Imperial  household  is  present. 

[ ioo] 


GEISHA 


It  is  often  said  by  foreigners  that  geisha 
and  prostitutes  not  infrequently  make  happy 
matches,  and  by  legal  marriage  escape  from 
their  unhappy  lives  of  shame.  This  is  one 
of  those  pretty  fables  one  would  like  to 
believe,  but  the  facts  do  not  seem  to  support 
the  theory.  There  are,  no  doubt,  rare  in- 
stances where  such  has  been  the  case.  I 
have  known  two  women  who  had  been  geisha 
and  who  married  men  of  some  position.  In 
one  case  the  man  was  a physician.  When 
I knew  the  family  the  ex-geisha  had  been  in 
the  home  a number  of  years  and  was  a lovely, 
modest,  capable  woman,  a regular  member 
of  my  wife’s  cooking  class.  But  it  was  no- 
ticeable that  she  always  took  a “back  seat” 
among  the  ladies;  she  was  tolerated  by  them 
and  treated  not  unkindly,  but  it  was  clear 
that  they  looked  down  on  her.  The  man’s 
kindred  never  favored  the  match,  and  would 
not  let  him  marry  the  woman  legally,  so  she 
lived  in  his  house,  took  excellent  care  of  his 
first  wife’s  children,  and  was  to  them  all  that 
a stepmother  could  be,  yet,  so  far  as  I know, 
[ ioi  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


she  has  never  gained  her  full  position  in 
the  home  of  her  husband  nor  among  his 
relatives. 

The  other  case  I knew  but  slightly,  as  she 
died  but  a few  weeks  after  I made  her  ac- 
quaintance, but  she  must  have  been  a woman 
of  exceptional  character.  She  was  a Chris- 
tian and  highly  respected  in  the  church. 

Such  cases,  however,  are  rare.  A geisha 
may  be  in  high  favor  during  the  decade  or 
more  when  at  the  height  of  her  physical 
charms,  though  even  then  her  inner  life  is 
empty  and  loveless;  but  when  no  longer  at- 
tractive she  is  cast  aside  as  a faded  flower, 
to  spend  the  rest  of  her  life  forlorn,  unloved, 
and  uncared  for.  Truly,  the  way  of  the 
geisha  is  hard! 

Geisha  naru  mi  to ; 

Michi  tobu  tori  wa 
Doko  no  idzuko  de 
Hateru  yara, 

is  a popular  ditty  regarding  the  final  disap- 
pearance of  geisha  from  sight.  It  may  be 
roughly  translated:  “What  becomes  of 

[ 102  ] 


GEISHA 


geisha,  do  you  ask?  I ask  in  turn,  where  end 
their  lives  the  birds  that  fly  along  the 
road?  ” 

In  regard  to  the  number  of  geisha,  Mr. 
Murphy’s  statistics  show  that  from  1887  to 
1897  they  increased  throughout  Japan  from 
10,326  to  26,336,  and  since  then  the  in- 
crease has  been  relatively  small,  the  number 
being  now  in  the  vicinity  of  30,000. 

So  far  as  is  known  to  me,  no  regular  Chris- 
tian or  philanthropic  work  is  done  for  this 
class. 


[ 103  ] 


CHAPTER  XI 


SHOGI  (LICENSED  PROSTITUTES) 

IT  may  seem  strange  to  class  prostitutes 
among  working  women,  but  the  facts  re- 
quire such  classification,  for,  not  only  so  far 
as  the  parents  and  brothel  keepers  are  con- 
cerned, but  also  so  far  as  the  girls  themselves 
are  concerned,  it  is  entirely  a matter  of 
money.  If  the  business  did  not  pay  splen- 
didly, the  keepers  would  not  erect  their 
handsome  buildings,  pay  the  heavy  license 
fees,  nor  buy  the  girls  from  the  parents  at 
considerable  cost.  And  on  the  other  hand, 
if  the  parents  did  not  receive  what  they 
regard  as  large  sums  for  their  daughters, 
the  latter  would  not  be  sold  to  such  lives 
of  shame  and  disease.  And  so  far  as  the 
poor  victims  are  concerned,  there  is  abun- 
dant evidence  that  they  often  go  into  the 
wretched  business  solely  at  the  command  of 

[ 104  ] 


SHOGI 


their  parents,  for  among  the  lowest  class  the 
noble  doctrine  of  obedience  to  parents  is 
shamefully  perverted  to  this  vile  end.  Chil- 
dren are  taught  that  obedience  is  a child’s 
first  duty,  regardless  of  the  question  whether 
the  thing  required  by  parents  is  right  or 
wrong.  The  girl  goes  to  the  brothel  in 
obedience  to  her  parents,  who  send  her  there 
to  earn  a living  for  herself  and  to  help  them 
out  of  special  financial  difficulties.  Thus 
from  first  to  last,  so  far  as  the  girls,  the 
parents,  and  the  keepers  are  concerned,  the 
question  is  economic. 

Among  the  working  women  of  Japan  pros- 
titutes surely  are  the  most  pitiful  of  all. 
They  give  the  most  and  get  the  least.  They 
receive  no  training,  like  the  geisha;  have  no 
liberty;  to  prevent  their  running  away,  are 
imprisoned  in  brothels,  or  if  diseased  or  ill, 
in  hospitals;  and  have  no  friends  except  pos- 
sibly other  prostitutes.  Most  of  them  soon 
loathe  the  business,  but  are  helpless,  hope- 
less prisoners, — for  the  keepers  who  paid 
their  parents  a few  score  or  hundreds  of  yen 
[ 105  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and  loaded  them  with  beautiful  clothes, 
charge  all  these  items  to  their  account,  so 
that  they  are  under  a heavy  debt  which 
must  be  paid  before  they  can  leave.  This 
debt  the  laws  of  the  land  theoretically  ig- 
nore but  practically  recognize,  for  the 
“ keeper  ” keeps  the  books  as  well  as  the 
brothel,  and  the  police  and  officials  are  often 
on  his  side.  In  this  way  licentiously  in- 
clined officials,  merchants,  and  travelers  pro- 
vide for  the  easy,  economical,  and  legal  sat- 
isfaction of  their  desires. 

I do  not  propose  here  to  give  a detailed 
account  of  this  distressful  and  disgusting 
“ business.”  Those  who  desire  more  infor- 
mation should  procure  The  Social  Evil  in 
Japan,  by  the  Rev.  U.  G.  Murphy.  Some 
years  ago  Mr.  Murphy,  by  grit  and  pluck, 
carried  certain  test  cases  through  the  courts 
and  secured  legal  opportunity  for  girls  to 
quit  the  business  if  they  wished.  The  Sal- 
vation Army  and  some  of  the  daily  papers 
took  pains  to  let  the  brothel  girls  know  their 
legal  rights,  and  in  a short  period  over 
[ 106] 


SHOGI 


twelve  thousand,  at  that  time  over  one  third 
of  the  whole  number,  left  the  brothels,  so 
that  for  a while  the  business  was  prostrated 
in  many  quarters.  This  single  fact  shows  the 
spirit  and  attitude  of  a large  number  of  the 
girls.  Since  then  the  wily  keepers  and  all 
interested  in  maintaining  this  lucrative  trade 
have  succeeded  in  modifying  the  administra- 
tion of  the  regulations,  so  that  the  girls  are 
again  closely  controlled. 

There  is  however  a rising  public  con- 
science and  an  abolition  movement  is  gath- 
ering strength.  The  virtual  slavery  of  the 
girls;  the  fact  that  they  are  openly  bought 
and  sold,  and  that,  too,  under  governmental 
supervision  and  sanction;  the  cruelty  inflicted 
on  many  girls  by  their  keepers;  the  fraud 
practised  in  connection  with  their  accounts, 
whereby  a girl  is  kept  hopelessly  in  debt,  so 
that,  however  faithful  she  may  be,  release  is 
impossible,  and  indeed  the  more  faithful  the 
more  profitable  she  is  to  her  keeper — all 
these  facts  are  becoming  widely  known  and 
are  beginning  to  arouse  public  indignation. 

I I07  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


The  government  is  openly  charged  with  pro- 
tecting slavery,  and  that  of  the  worst  kind. 
High  government  officials  are  being  con- 
demned for  licentiousness. 

As  signs  of  the  times,  I give  a few  facts. 
In  the  summer  of  1909  the  wealthiest  and 
most  centrally  located  prostitute  quarter  in 
Osaka  was  completely  wiped  out  by  a great 
fire.  Before  the  flames  were  fully  out,  the 
anti-brothel  forces  realized  their  opportunity 
and  under  the  leadership  of  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  and  Young  Women’s 
Christian  Union  began  to  agitate  for  re- 
fusal to  allow  the  rebuilding  of  the  business 
in  that  region  of  the  city.  A petition  was 
prepared  and  signed  by  one  hundred  thou- 
sand people.  Large  numbers  of  Osaka’s  best 
citizens  allied  themselves  with  the  movement. 
The  result  was  that  the  authorities  in  charge 
saw  fit  to  yield  to  the  pressure  and  arranged 
that  the  new  buildings  for  prostitution  should 
be  erected  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city. 

In  the  winter  of  1911,  the  city  of  Tokyo 
suffered  from  a great  conflagration  which 
[ 108] 


SHOGI 


completely  destroyed  the  section  of  the  city 
known  as  “ Yoshiwara,” 1 which  for  three 
hundred  years  has  been  assigned  to  pros- 
titution. This  center  of  the  social  evil  had 
become  enormously  wealthy,  and  such  mag- 
nificent buildings  had  been  erected  for  the 
business  that  it  had  become  one  of  the  fa- 
mous sights  of  Tokyo.  Before  the  lire  was 
fairly  over,  the  anti-brothel  forces  began 
to  organize  their  campaign,  which  continued 
for  months.  A magazine  called  Purity 
( Kaku  Sei)  was  started.  In  this  case,  how- 
ever, success  did  not  crown  their  efforts. 

Not  long  since  an  army  division  was  lo- 
cated in  the  vicinity  of  Wakayama,  a city 
of  considerable  importance,  not  far  from 
Osaka,  in  which  there  have  never  been  any 
prostitute  houses.  This  led  to  the  suggestion 
that  it  would  be  well  to  open  there  a regu- 
lar prostitute  quarter.  The  matter  was 
keenly  discussed  and  the  proposition  carried 
through  the  city  council  and  authorized  by 

1 Foreigners  commonly,  but  mistakenly,  suppose  that 
“Yoshiwara”  means  “Prostitute  Quarter.” 

[ 109  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


all  the  lower  officials,  but  when  it  came 
finally  before  the  prefectural  governor  for 
signature,  it  was  vetoed,  and  the  veto  mes- 
sage is  worthy  of  preservation  and  careful 
consideration  by  those  who  are  interested  in 
these  matters. 

The  governor  says  in  his  message:  “ I was 
early  convinced  that  the  establishment  of 
licensed  quarters  in  the  city  was  harmful 
to  the  public  interest.  It  has  been  a subject 
of  discussion  in  Wakayama  now  for  many 
years,  and  I have  investigated  the  question 
thoroughly  from  the  standpoint  of  public 
morals,  health,  and  economics,  at  places  with 
and  without  licensed  quarters,  and  find  that 
the  existence  of  such  institutions  is  distinctly 
harmful.  The  standard  of  morals  is  low- 
ered, the  public  health  impaired,  disease 
made  rampant,  the  young  are  sent  into  wrong 
channels,  homes  are  broken  up,  and  extrava- 
gance is  encouraged.  The  state  of  afifairs 
in  Shingu,  in  this  prefecture  of  Wakayama, 
where  licensed  houses  have  been  established, 
clearly  shows  that  the  existence  of  such 
[ no  ] 


SHOGI 


places  is  extremely  harmful  to  public  in- 
terest. The  majority  representation  to  the 
authorities  urged  the  establishment  of  li- 
censed quarters  on  the  ground  that  the  quar- 
ters would  promote  the  prosperity  of  that 
section  of  the  city  in  which  they  were  situ- 
ated. It  is  true  they  may  benefit  a section 
of  the  city  in  one  way,  but  the  benefit  so 
obtained  would  be  offset  by  many  other  evils. 
The  military  authorities  are  strongly  op- 
posed to  the  establishment  of  licensed  quar- 
ters, and  their  views  are  very  reasonable. 
For  these  reasons  I have  decided  to  refuse 
permission  for  the  establishment  of  licensed 
quarters  in  Wakayama  city.”1 

In  passing,  it  is  worthy  of  record  that  the 
prefecture  of  Joshu  has  for  over  thirty  years, 
by  ceaseless  vigilance,  prevented  government 
sanction  of  prostitution.  Repeatedly  has  the 
battle  been  fought  and  repeatedly  have  the 
anti-brothel  forces  won.  In  this  respect 
Joshu  stands  alone  among  the  forty-eight  pre- 
fectures of  the  Japanese  empire. 

1 As  translated  by  the  Japan  Chronicle,  May  13,  1911. 

[ HI  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


As  illustrating  the  low  moral  ideals  pre- 
vailing among  a certain  class  of  men,  Pro- 
fessor Abe  of  Waseda  University,  in  a re- 
cent brothel-abolition  speech,  told  of  a cer- 
tain politician  who,  though  a fast  liver,  was 
praised  because  he  never  debauched  the 
wives  and  daughters  of  his  friends,  but  al- 
ways confined  himself  to  those  women  whose 
services  he  fully  paid  for  in  hard  cash! 
Colonel  Yamamuro,  the  highest  Japanese 
officer  in  the  Salvation  Army,  on  the  same 
evening,  speaking  of  the  low  moral  ideals 
of  the  classes  from  which  prostitutes  are 
drawn,  said  that  in  connection  with  the  Sal- 
vation Army  he  had  had  opportunity  to 
know  of  twelve  hundred  girls  who  had  been 
aided  in  the  two  rescue  homes  of  the  Army. 
Of  these  twelve  hundred  about  one  half  had 
been  prostitutes.  The  reasons  given  by  them 
for  leaving  were  various,  such  as  ill  health, 
cruelty,  lovers,  but  not  one  said  she  left 
the  business  because  it  was  wrong.  The  evi- 
dence is  full  and  convincing  that  a consid- 
erable section  of  the  Japanese  people  do  not 
[ H2  ] 


SHOGI 


regard  loose  sexual  relations  as  particularly 
immoral. 

In  regard  to  the  statistics  of  prostitutes, 
the  figures  given  by  Mr.  Murphy  are  prob- 
ably the  most  accurate  available,  and  are 
substantially  official.  Between  1887  and 
1897  the  number  of  prostitutes  increased 
from  27,559  to  47,055,  reaching  their  maxi- 
mum in  1899,  when  there  were  52,410.  Then, 
following  up  the  work  of  Mr.  Murphy  and 
the  Salvation  Army,  came  the  “ cessation 
movement,”  reducing  the  number  to  40,195 
in  1901,  and  the  following  year  to  38,676. 
Since  that  date  the  number  has  grown.  In 
two  years  four  thousand  fresh  girls  were 
bought  up,  and  a thousand  more  the  fol- 
lowing year.  The  latest  statistics  are  those 
for  1906,  when  the  number  of  prostitutes 
was  reported  as  44,542.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  at  the  present  time  the  number  is  near, 
if  it  has  not  passed,  the  fifty  thousand 
mark. 

It  would  be  natural  to  suppose  that  re- 
cruits for  the  geisha  and  shogi  occupations 

[ 11 3 ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


would  be  found  largely  among  the  poorest 
farmers,  but  both  my  outdoor  man  and  also 
my  cook  assert  that  such  is  not  the  fact. 
“ Farmers  would  never  sell  their  daughters 
for  such  vile  purposes,  however  poor  they 
might  become.  Parents  who  do  such  things 
are  only  the  degenerate  creatures  who  live 
in  cities,”  is  the  scornful  remark  of  my  gar- 
dener. My  cook  asserts  the  same  thing,  and 
adds  that  farmers’  daughters  have  not  the 
genteel  features  and  figures  nor  the  light 
complexion  essential  to  girls  seeking  such 
occupations.  Other  investigations  confirm 
these  assertions.  The  great  cities  of  Nagoya 
and  Niigata,  and  indeed  the  whole  of  Echigo, 
are  famous  for  the  supply  of  girls  they  send 
to  the  brothels  of  Tokyo.  A poor  man  with 
several  daughters  has  a pretty  good  invest- 
ment, and  rejoices  more  at  the  birth  of  a girl 
than  of  a boy,  because  it  means  an  early  and 
definite  income. 

I found  at  one  time  in  Matsuyama  that 
all  the  girls  of  sixteen  to  eighteen  years  of 
age  in  a certain  poor  quarter  had,  in  the 

[ 114] 


SHOGI 


course  of  one  year,  been  sold  off  to  the 
brothels.  About  that  time  a man  came  to 
me  with  a pitiful  story  of  poverty;  he  had 
five  children,  but  unfortunately  they  were 
all  boys;  had  they  been  girls,  he  said,  he 
might  have  sold  some  of  them  and  so  not 
have  needed  to  ask  my  aid! 

The  word  used  in  connection  with  both 
geisha  and  prostitutes  is  perfectly  frank; 
no  effort  is  made  to  conceal  by  terms  the 
nature  of  the  transaction.  The  girls  are 
“ bought  ” and  “ sold.”  They  employ  the 
same  words  as  those  used  in  buying  and  sell- 
ing animals,  food,  clothing — anything.  Their 
purchase  and  sale  is  a regular  business  in 
which  men  and  women  openly  engage,  trav- 
eling the  country  over  in  search  of  girls,  and 
conducting  them  in  small  groups  to  the  keep- 
ers of  brothels,  who  pay  so  much  a head. 
And  this  takes  place  in  civilized  Japan! 
Moreover,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  girls  may 
thus  be  bought,  it  is  true  that  they  are  also 
occasionally  stolen.  I have  known  of  a 
pitiful  instance  where  the  girl,  a member  of 
[US] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


a respectable  family,  was  boxed  and  shipped 
,on  a steamer  as  freight,  to  elude  the  police, 
and  taken  to  Siam.  In  five  years  she  has 
succeeded  in  getting  one  letter  to  her  home, 
but  the  parents  dare  not  put  the  matter  into 
the  hands  of  Japanese  officials,  as  that  would 
make  the  situation  hopeless. 

But  Occidentals  may  not  forget  how  ter- 
rible a scourge  is  commercialized  vice  in 
civilized  and  so-called  “ Christian  ” Europe, 
and  who  has  not  heard  of  the  “ white  slav- 
ery ” of  America,  with  its  stealing  of  girls 
and  young  women  for  purposes  of  prostitu- 
tion? The  institution  of  comparisons  be- 
tween nations  and  individuals  is  alike  odious, 
— but  unavoidable.  A fair  comparison  would 
seem  to  be  that,  whereas  in  the  West  the 
moral  sense  of  a large  proportion  of  the 
people  is  very  strongly  against  the  social 
evil  and  seeks  to  abolish  it,  in  Japan  the 
moral  sense  of  the  mass  of  the  population 
acquiesces  in  the  situation,  so  that  the  gov- 
ernment and  a vast  majority  of  the  influ- 
ential people  of  the  land  unite  to  make  the 

[ n6] 


SHOGI 


business  safe,  legal,  and  remunerative;  and 
that,  while  in  Occidental  Christian  lands 
no  girl  can  voluntarily  enter  this  sphere  of 
life  without  being  conscious  of  its  shame 
and  immorality,  many  of  the  girls  of  Japan 
may  have  no  adequate  knowledge  of  these 
inevitable  consequences  until  their  fate  has 
been  sealed. 


[ 117  ] 


CHAPTER  XII 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 

^T^HE  reader  will  desire  to  know  what,  if 
any,  have  been  the  efforts  to  ameliorate 
the  evils  described  in  preceding  pages.  They 
are  of  two  kinds:  first,  governmental  in 
origin,  general  in  scope,  legal  and  educative 
in  method;  and  second,  private  in  origin, 
both  general  and  specific  in  scope,  personal, 
educative,  ethical,  and  religious  in  method. 

The  general  educational  policy  of  the  gov- 
ernment is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a philan- 
thropic or  ameliorative  effort  to  meet  the 
conditions  already  described.  This  policy 
however  does  have  a powerful  elevating  in- 
fluence on  the  lives  and  character  of  the 
entire  people.  As  we  have  seen,  over  ninety- 
seven  per  cent,  of  the  girls  of  school  age 
are  in  attendance,  according  to  the  reports. 
Though  we  allow  a discount  on  these  fig- 
[ n8] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


ures  (and  some  may  perhaps  be  necessary), 
we  can  still  say  that,  if  the  present  policy 
of  six  years  of  compulsory  education  is  car- 
ried out,  the  rising  generation  of  boys  and 
girls  will  be  able  to  read  fairly  well  the 
daily  paper  and  simple  books.  To  millions 
of  women  this  means  the  opening  of  doors 
of  knowledge  and  opportunity  which  in  ages 
past  have  been  closed  to  them. 

The  government  has  also  been  the  chief 
initiative  force  in  all  recent  movements 
to  improve  the  economic  and  industrial  con- 
ditions of  the  people.  Railroads  in  Japan 
owe  their  existence  to  the  government,  as 
also  do  many  forms  of  modern  industry. 
Agriculture  and  fruit  and  stock  raising  owe 
much  to  the  government,  which  has  im- 
ported Western  seed,  Western  fruit  trees,  and 
new  breeds  of  horses  and  cattle.  All  these 
efforts  have  done  much  to  improve  the  eco- 
nomic conditions,  thus  elevating  the  scale 
of  living.  People  eat  better  food  and  more 
of  it,  live  in  better  houses,  and  wear  better 
clothes  than  they  did  fifty  or  more  years  ago, 

[ 119  1 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and — an  important  item — they  pay  less  taxes 
in  proportion  to  their  income.  A general 
uplifting  process  is  modifying  their  life  and 
thought,  and  this  is  profoundly  affecting 
Japan’s  working  classes,  and,  of  course, 
her  women. 

In  regard  to  the  specific  evils  introduced 
by  Western  industrialism,  we  have  already 
seen  how  the  government  has  sought  to  rem- 
edy the  difficulties,  so  far  as  laws  can  go, 
but  hitherto  its  efforts  have  largely  been 
thwarted  by  capitalists. 

Among  the  notable  efforts  of  the  govern- 
ment to  promote  wise  social  reform  move- 
ments have  been  the  large  gatherings,  at 
considerable  government  expense,  of  lead- 
ers of  philanthropic  and  benevolent  insti- 
tutions for  instruction  in  the  most  recent 
and  approved  sociological  principles.  Com- 
petent specialists  from  all  over  the  country 
have  been  employed  to  instruct  these  leaders, 
and  thus  the  whole  country  is  given  the  bene- 
fit of  the  special  knowledge  of  the  few.  The 
government  has  also,  during  the  past  four 
[ 120] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


years,  distributed  some  forty  thousand  yen 
annually  among  those  eleemosynary  insti- 
tutions which  it  regards  as  models  of 
efficiency. 

Furthermore,  opportunity  for  the  higher 
education  of  women,  first  given  on  a wide 
scale  during  the  past  decade,  while  not  yet 
affecting  working  women  to  any  appreciable 
extent,  cannot  fail  to  do  so  as  time  passes, 
for  it  proclaims  the  intrinsic  ability  of 
woman  and  gives  her  a standing  of  intel- 
lectual equality  with  man,  in  sharp  contrast 
to  the  humiliating  position  assigned  to  her 
by  popular  Buddhism,  which  has  taught  that 
women  must  be  reborn  as  men  before  they 
can  be  saved.  Indeed,  they  are  born  women 
because  of  their  sins.  A Japanese  proverb 
has  it  that  one  must  never  trust  a woman, 
even  if  she  has  borne  you  seven  children! 
This  long-believed  doctrine  as  to  the  inherent 
incapacity  and  essential  depravity  of  woman 
has  no  doubt  been  a powerful  cause  of  her 
social  degradation.  Under  the  present  sys- 
tem of  general  education,  however,  these 
[ I2i  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


doctrines  and  beliefs  will  soon  be  completely 
overthrown,  thus  making  room  for  and  pro- 
ducing great  changes  in  the  social  and  in- 
dustrial conditions  of  all  women. 

But  the  government  is  not  the  sole  worker 
for  the  social  amelioration  of  industrial  con- 
ditions. Through  private  effort  forces  are 
being  introduced  which  are  more  potent  than 
any  the  government  knows  or  can  control.  I 
refer  to  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  This 
has  already  introduced  such  a leaven  into 
Japanese  society  that  nothing  can  now  pre- 
vent its  transforming  the  whole  mass  in 
time. 

Should  the  entire  foreign  body  of  624 
Protestant  and  371  Roman  Catholic  mission- 
aries be  withdrawn  from  Japan,  there  would 
still  remain  (January,  1914)  728  ordained 
and  713  unordained  Japanese  Protestant 
pastors  and  trained  evangelists,  and  331 
Bible  women.  Among  the  815  organized 
churches,  182  are  wholly  self-supporting. 
In  addition  to  the  90,000  Protestant  commu- 
nicants, 67,000  Roman  Catholic  people,  and 
[ 122  ] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


32,000  Greek  Christians  among  the  Japa- 
nese, it  is  estimated  by  Christian  pastors 
that  there  are  many  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  the  people  who  are  conducting  their  lives 
according  to  the  principles  and  with  the 
spirit  of  Jesus. 

Furthermore,  a careful  study  of  modern 
Japanese  civilization  shows  that  the  Chris- 
tian conception  of  man  as  having  intrinsic 
and  inherent  worth  has  been  embodied  in 
the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  land  and  is 
being  put  into  wide  practise.  The  rights 
of  children,  women,  and  inferiors  and  the 
duties  of  parents,  husbands,  and  superiors 
are  new  notes  in  Japan,  and  are  sounding 
forth  a richer  music  than  has  ever  before 
been  heard  in  the  Orient. 

Of  course  there  are  still  discordant  notes, 
as  we  have  seen  when  considering  the  sub- 
ject of  the  buying  and  selling  of  geisha  and 
prostitutes;  but  so  there  are  even  in  so- 
called  Christian  lands.  Nevertheless,  the 
conception  of  the  value  of  the  individual  and 
of  his  rights  is  inspiring  a hope  among  the 
[ 123  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


lowly  and  hitherto  downtrodden  and  op- 
pressed sections  of  the  nation  which  cannot 
be  extinguished,  and  will  in  due  time  pow- 
erfully transform  the  traditional  civiliza- 
tion, giving  to  woman  a place  of  equality 
along  with  man  in  the  estimation  of  all. 

The  general  education  of  girls,  and  espe- 
cially their  higher  education,  is  signal  proof 
of  a wide  acceptance  of  Christian  concep- 
tions. According  to  the  Resume  Statistique 
(1914),  there  were,  in  1911-12,  250  girls’ 
high  schools,  public  and  private,  whose  pu- 
pils numbered  64,809.  In  addition,  the  num- 
ber of  women  in  normal  schools  preparing 
to  become  elementary  school-teachers  was 
8,271,  and  in  the  higher  normal  schools,  570. 
The  number  of  female  teachers  is  reported 
at  42,739.  These  girls’  high  and  normal 
schools,  through  the  ability  they  give  their 
graduates  to  converse  with  men  on  a basis 
of  intellectual  equality  in  regard  to  topics 
of  current  interest  while  retaining  their  mod- 
esty and  personal  character,  are  so  trans- 
forming the  reticent  habits  and  unsocial  cus- 
[ 124] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


toms  of  Japanese  ladies  that  ere  long  scant 
room  will  be  left  for  the  old-time  geisha. 

The  change  Christianity  is  silently  bring- 
ing to  the  home  life  of  Japan,  adding  to 
its  sweetness,  purity,  and  conscious  unity,  and 
contributing  a mighty  uplift  to  both  head 
and  heart,  few  as  yet  have  either  eyes  to  see 
or  ears  to  hear.  The  influence  already  ex- 
erted by  Christian  ideas  and  ideals  on  the  tra- 
ditional conceptions  of  Japan  in  regard  to 
home  life,  marriage,  childhood,  the  poor 
and  lowly,  the  orphan,  the  blind,  the  leper," 
and  the  diseased  generally, — in  a word  on 
the  value  of  the  individual  and  his  inalien- 
able, God-given  rights, — is  so  widespread 
and  so  beneficent  that  it  receives  little  spe- 
cific comment  and  no  opposition. 

There  were  no  doubt  in  old  Japan  certain 
influences  predisposing  many  to  the  new 
ideals  and  practises  introduced  from  the 
West.  It  is  difficult,  perhaps  impossible, 
at  this  stage  in  Japan’s  development  to  reckon 
accurately  how  much  of  Japan’s  new  life  is 
due  to  new  factors  introduced  from  Chris- 
[ *25  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


tendom,  and  how  much  to  ideals  already 
operative  in  the  feudal  system.  No  one  can 
doubt,  however,  that  Christian  ideals  have 
been  the  most  important  factors  in  the  West 
to  give  woman  her  present  status.  Nor  can 
we  doubt  that  Christian  ideals  and  practises 
are  playing  an  important  role  in  the  modern 
emancipation  of  women  in  Japan. 

Those  who  criticize  missionaries  as  forc- 
ing the  Christian  religion  upon  unwilling 
peoples  know  not  whereof  they  speak.  The 
Christian  faith  would  make  no  progress 
whatever  in  Japan  were  it  not  found  by  Japa- 
nese themselves  to  be  ennobling  and  satis- 
fying. It  is  welcomed  because  it  brings  hope 
and  peace  and  power  to  those  who  were 
hopeless  and  restless  and  powerless. 

But  he  is  very  shortsighted  who  thinks 
that  the  main  forces  Christianizing  Japan 
are  wielded  by  the  foreign  missionary.  The 
missionary  doubtless  is  an  essential  agent, 
but  of  far  more  importance  is  the  work  of 
Japanese  Christians  themselves;  and  in  ad- 
dition to  these  is  the  general  though  vague 
[ 126  ] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


influence  exerted  by  Western  civilization  as 
a whole,  and  particularly  by  the  English  lan- 
guage and  literature.  In  that  important 
work,  Fifty  Years  of  New  Japan,  are  many 
remarkable  chapters,  but  especially  note- 
worthy are  those  entitled  “ Social  Changes 
of  New  Japan,”  and  “ Influence  of  the  West 
upon  Japan,”  from  the  pens  of  competent, 
wide-awake  Japanese  scholars. 

Consider  what  Professor  Nitobe  says: 
“ The  greatest  influence  of  the  West  is,  after 
all,  the  spiritual.  . . . Christianity  has  in- 
fluenced the  thought  and  lives  of  many  in- 
dividuals in  Japan,  and  will  influence  many 
more,  eventually  affecting  the  nation  through 
the  altered  view-point  and  personnel  of  the 
citizen  and  the  administrator.  The  charac- 
ter-changing power  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
I believe  to  be  only  just  now  making  itself 
appreciably  evident  in  our  midst.”  Some- 
what further  on,  referring  to  the  English 
language,  he  writes:  “The  effect  of  the 
acquisition  of  the  English  tongue  on  the  men- 
tal habits — I had  almost  said  on  the  uncon- 
[ 127  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


scious  cerebrations  of  our  people — is  incal- 
culable. . . . The  moral  influence  of  some 
of  its  simple  text-books  used  in  our  schools 
cannot  be  overrated.  . . . They  have  been  in- 
strumental in  opening  new  vistas  of  thought 
and  vast  domains  of  enterprise  and  interest 
to  young  minds.” 

No  student  of  Japan’s  new  life,  resulting 
from  the  influence  of  Western  and  Christian 
ideas  and  ideals,  should  fail  to  familiarize 
himself  with  the  eighth  issue  (1910)  of  The 
Christian  Movement  in  Japan,  which  gives  a 
series  of  remarkable  addresses  delivered  by 
Japanese  and  foreigners  at  the  semicentennial 
celebration  of  the  beginning  of  Protestant 
missions  in  Japan.  Especial  attention  should 
be  paid  to  the  section  treating  of  the  “ In- 
fluence of  Christianity  on  Japanese  Thought 
and  Life.” 

It  will  be  obvious  to  any  thoughtful  per- 
son that  changes  so  wide  and  deep,  affecting 
all  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  life,  of 
manhood  and  womanhood,  of  the  state,  of  law 
and  justice,  of  right  and  duty,  are  not  con- 
I 128  ] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


fined  to  those  whose  privilege  it  is  to  study 
Western  books  and  acquire  the  higher  edu- 
cation. In  ten  thousand  ways  the  whole  na- 
tional life  is  being  transformed,  slowly  it  may 
be  and  silently,  yet  surely  and  steadily.  And 
the  benefits  are  accruing  to  the  most  lowly 
and  least  educated  no  less  than  to  those  at 
the  top.  All  the  working  women  of  Japan 
have  already  received  in  some  degree,  and 
in  the  future  will  more  and  more  receive, 
the  blessings  and  the  uplift  which  are  com- 
ing to  the  nation  through  its  contact  with 
the  Christian  conceptions  and  standards  em- 
bedded in  Western  civilization  and  literature. 

A volume — nay,  many  volumes — would  be 
needed  to  tell  in  detail  the  story  of  how 
the  Christian  message  has  been  and  is  being 
conveyed  to  the  people  of  Japan.  We  should 
make  known  the  story  of  Joseph  Hardy 
Neesima,  of  the  Kumamoto  Band,  of  Dr. 
Clark  and  Dr.  Hepburn,  of  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  teachers  of  English  in 
government  schools,  of  faithful,  self-sacri- 
ficing pastors,  evangelists,  Bible  women,  and 
[ 129] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


missionaries.  We  should  recount  the  deeds 
of  heroic  lay  Christians  in  all  the  walks  of 
life,  and  above  all  in  their  homes,  too  often 
hostile,  commending  their  new-found  faith 
by  their  new  spirit  and  life.  We  should 
tell  of  the  work  of  Christian  teachers  of 
ethics  in  the  prisons,  and  the  remarkable  re- 
sults secured.  We  should  relate  the  experi- 
ences of  those  who  have  struggled  for  the 
rights  of  prostitutes,  of  Salvation  Army  offi- 
cers, of  matrons  of  reform  homes,  of  man- 
agers of  ex-convicts’  homes,  of  founders  of 
orphan  asylums,  of  supporters  of  private 
charity  hospitals.  We  should  tell  the  story 
of  the  scores  of  Christian  institutions  the 
central  aim  of  which  is  to  express  in  con- 
crete life  the  Christian’s  faith  and  hope  and 
love. 

But  in  addition  to  the  narrative  of  direct 
Christian  work,  full  heed  should  be  given 
to  the  evidences  of  the  wide  acceptance  by 
the  nation  of  the  best  Christian  ideals  in 
matters  of  philanthropy.  To  meet  the  needs 
of  the  famine  sufferers  in  north  Japan  dur- 

[ 130] 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


ing  the  winter  and  spring  of  1914,  and  of 
those  who  were  deprived  of  their  all  by  the 
terrific  volcanic  explosion  of  the  island  of 
Sakurajima  in  January,  1914,  more  than  a 
million  yen  ($500,000)  of  private  gifts 
flowed  into  the  hands  of  the  relieving  com- 
mittees. For  the  earthquake  sufferers  the 
Diet  voted  622,883  Yen  ($311,441)- 

The  late  Emperor,  shortly  before  his 
death,  was  so  moved  by  the  medical  needs 
of  the  poor  that  he  contributed  a fund  of 
a million  yen  for  the  systematic  undertaking 
of  medical  work  in  all  parts  of  Japan.  This 
started  a movement  among  the  wealthy  which 
has  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a Medical 
Relief  Association  (Saiseikwai) , having  a 
fund  of  $5,000,000  already  paid  in  and 
pledges  for  $8,000,000  more. 

Men  of  wealth  in  Japan  are  following  the 
example  set  by  the  best  Christian  life  in 
the  West.  In  recent  years  several  large 
gifts  have  been  made  for  education.  At  the 
close  of  1913  one  of  the  most  wealthy  and 
always  generous  families  of  Japan,  Sumitomo 

[ 131  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


of  Osaka,  announced  their  decision  to  estab- 
lish an  industrial  school  for  the  poor,  at  an 
expense  of  $200,000.  And  in  the  same  year 
Mr.  O'Hara,  one  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
philanthropic  men  of  Okayama,  announced 
his  plan  of  opening  a high-grade  agricul- 
tural school  for  poor  boys  of  that  prefecture. 
The  amount  of  the  gift  is  not  stated,  but  in 
addition  to  the  large  sum  needed  for  build- 
ings and  equipment,  he  donates  as  perma- 
nent endowment  some  250  acres  of  rice  land 
whose  value,  roughly  estimated,  may  be  about 
$50,000. 

There  are  in  Japan  of  all  denominations 
and  religions  the  following  institutions  for 
the  uplift  and  regeneration  of  the  downtrod- 
den and  for  the  help  of  the  poor: 


Orphan  asylums  ioo 

Rescue  work  92 

Dispensaries  45 

Reformatories  47 

Homes  for  ex-prisoners 37 

Homes  for  old  people  22 

Poor  farms  11 


[ 132  ] 


354 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


Of  these  institutions,  the  compiler  of  the 
statistics  states  that  for  one  Shinto  and  three 
Buddhist,  there  are  five  Christian  institu- 
tions. The  leaders  and  inspirers  in  all  the 
forms  of  philanthropic  work  are  Christians, 
as  from  the  nature  of  the  case  might  be 
expected. 

“ In  the  matter  of  Christian  Social  Serv- 
ice,” writes  A.  D.  Hail,  in  the  Japan  Evan- 
gelist,1 “ the  Federated  Missions  have  been 
represented  by  two  Committees  whose  fields 
of  endeavor  are  quite  distinct.  The  one  is 
the  excellent  Eleemosynary  Committee.  It 
deals  with  the  delinquents,  defectives,  and 
dependents  of  society.  . . . 

“ The  Industrial  Welfare  Committee  seeks 
to  Christianize  the  industrial  classes,  and 
to  encourage  the  development  of  dealing 
upon  Christian  principles  with  the  compli- 
cated questions  growing  out  of  the  relations 
of  capital  and  labor.  By  the  industrial 
classes  we  mean  the  non-capitalistic  laborers 
and  bread-winners.  It  includes  men,  women, 

1 January,  1915. 

[ 133  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


and  many  thousands  of  children.  They  do 
not  own  the  machinery  they  handle,  and  have 
no  voice  in  the  control  of  the  industries  with 
which  they  are  connected.  Being  without 
any  say  in  the  control  of  factories,  machines, 
and  raw  material,  they  can  be  discharged  at 
any  moment  by  employers  for  reasons  sat- 
isfactory alone  to  themselves.  Their  bodies, 
their  minds,  and  oftentime  their  morals,  be- 
come subservient  to  foremen  and  managers. 
The  unskilled  laborers  in  particular  have  no 
margin  of  either  wages  or  time  for  whole- 
some recreations,  for  accidents,  old  age, 
widowhood,  and  unemployment.  Besides 
these  there  is  another  large  class  in  Japan, 
of  small  traders  who  rent  their  shops  and 
eke  out  earnings  by  the  sweating  process, 
or  by  renting  rooms  for  doubtful  purposes. 
To  these  are  to  be  added  fishermen  who  do 
not  own  tackle,  tenant  farmers  and  their  em- 
ployees, and  the  main  body  of  school-teach- 
ers; also  an  army  engaged  in  transportation, 
together  with  postal  clerks,  postmen,  and 
others.  Incidental  to  this  are  the  districts 
[ 134  3 


AMELIORATIVE  EFFORTS 


of  large  cities  and  mining  camps,  where  there 
are  congested  populations  of  unskilled  la- 
borers subjected  to  diseases  occasioned  by 
bad  drainage,  inadequate  housing,  and  all 
the  consequent  evils.  As  these  do  not  earn 
sufficient  wages  to  entitle  them  to  vote,  they 
have  no  voice  whatever  in  the  betterment  of 
their  surroundings.  . . . 

“ There  is  a growing  tendency  toward  the 
fixedness  of  a gulf  between  laborers  and 
their  employers,  so  much  so  that  Japan’s 
great  danger  in  this  direction  is  that  she  may 
fail  to  realize  that  she  has  a labor  problem 
on  hand,  and  one  that  can  be  solved  here, 
as  elsewhere,  only  on  the  basis  of  Christian 
principles  of  common  fair  dealing.” 

In  spite,  however,  of  abundant  evidence 
that  Christian  ethical  and  philanthropic 
ideals  are  receiving  wide  acceptance  in 
Japan,  far  wider  than  would  be  suggested 
by  the  statistics  of  membership  in  the  Chris- 
tian churches,  it  is  also  true  that  the  evils 
of  Occidental  industrialism  and  materialism 
are  sweeping  in  like  a flood. 

[ 135  1 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


Turning  now  from  general  statements  as 
to  the  ethico-industrial  conditions  of  the 
working  women  of  Japan,  in  the  next  chap- 
ter I give  the  story  of  a single  institution. 


[ 136] 


CHAPTER  XIII 


THE  MATSUYAMA  WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 

THE  origin  and  history  of  the  Matsu- 
yama Working  Girls’  Home  cannot  be 
told  apart  from  the  story  of  the  man  who 
has  been  its  heart  and  life,  Mr.  Shinjiro 
Omoto.  Born  in  1872  and  graduating  from 
the  common  school  at  fourteen,  he  at  once 
went  into  business,  first  as  an  apprentice 
and  later  with  his  father.  At  nineteen  he 
opened  a sugar  store,  which  flourished  and 
before  long  overshadowed  the  father’s  busi- 
ness. Money  came  in  so  easily  that  he  soon 
entered  on  a life  of  licentiousness,  and  for 
several  years  he  was  as  famous  for  his 
drunken  carousals  as  he  had  been  for  his 
phenomenal  business  success.  His  parents  cut 
him  off,  refused  him  admittance  to  the  house, 
and  for  years  he  did  not  even  speak  to  his 
father. 


[ 137  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


In  1899,  we  held  a preaching  service  in 
a theater.  Mr.  Omoto  happened  to  be  drink- 
ing in  the  saloon  opposite.  Hearing  of  our 
gathering,  with  some  rowdy  comrades,  he 
thought  he  would  break  it  up,  with  the 
result  that  we  experienced  persistent  oppo- 
sition throughout  the  meeting.  But  the 
sermons  on  Pessimism  and  the  New  Life,  and 
my  statement  of  the  reasons  that  had  brought 
me  to  Japan  attracted  his  attention,  and  the 
next  day  I received  an  anonymous  letter  ask- 
ing for  tracts.  These  seem  to  have  produced 
a profound  impression,  particularly  the  tract 
entitled  “ Two  Young  Men.”  It  told  of  two 
hardened  prisoners  who  had  been  trans- 
formed by  the  gospel  and  became  highly  use- 
ful and  well-known  members  of  society.  Mr. 
Omoto  thereupon  set  himself  definitely  to 
learn  about  Christianity,  but  privately,  un- 
willing to  make  public  his  new  hope.  He 
bought  and  read  through,  quite  by  himself, 
the  entire  New  Testament.  Though  he 
gained  some  idea  of  the  gospel,  he  soon  found 
he  had  lost  none  of  his  passion  for  drink. 

[ 138  ] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


After  a while  he  went  to  Kobe  and  joined 
a temperance  society;  but  soon  finding  that 
the  society  had  members  who  broke  their 
pledges,  he  began  to  break  his.  In  despair 
he  went  to  Okayama  and  tried  to  join  him- 
self to  Mr.  Ishii,  head  of  the  well-known 
Christian  orphanage,  asking  to  be  made  a 
Christian,  but  he  was  told  to  return  to  Matsu- 
yama and  join  the  church  there  in  his  old 
home;  only  so  could  he  be  saved.  Greatly 
disappointed,  he  returned  and  called  on  me 
early  in  June,  1901,  but  without  telling  fully 
about  himself.  He  also  called  on  Mr.  Nishi- 
mura,  an  earnest  Christian  worker,  who 
prayed  with  him,  telling  him  that  to  be 
saved  he  must  receive  the  Holy  Spirit. 

That  summer,  quite  exceptionally,  I re- 
turned in  the  middle  of  the  vacation.  Mr. 
Omoto  appeared  at  the  prayer-meeting  for 
the  first  time  and  was  evidently  in  a state 
of  great  excitement,  so  much  so  that  only 
with  difficulty  could  we  understand  his  re- 
marks and  his  prayer.  The  gist  was  that 
he  had  that  day  received  the  Holy  Spirit, 

[ 139  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


that  he  was  now  saved,  and  that  his  joy  was 
too  great  for  utterance.  Tears  rolled  down 
his  cheeks  as  he  talked  and  prayed.  After 
the  meeting  I had  a few  words  with  him, 
and  urged  him  to  ally  himself  with  our  ex- 
perienced workers.  He  was  so  excited  that 
I feared  for  him,  and  wondered  whether  this 
might  not  be  a tornado  of  emotion  due  to 
drink  and  to  the  nervous  condition  incident 
to  his  riotous  life,  an  emotion  which  he  mis- 
took  for  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  I urged 
him  to  begin  at  once  to  live  the  Christian 
life,  cutting  loose  from  all  bad  companions 
and  bad  habits. 

To  gain  an  honest  living  he  entered  the 
Matsuyama  Cotton  Thread  Spinning  Fac- 
tory. This  required  twelve  hours  of  work 
daily,  sometimes  by  day  and  sometimes  by 
night,  a hard  pull  for  one  who  had  done  no 
steady  work  for  years.  He  attended  Chris- 
tian services  faithfully,  so  far  as  his  hours  of 
work  allowed,  and  became  quite  intimate 
with  two  or  three  of  our  best  Christians.  Be- 
fore long  he  began  to  talk  about  the  wretched 
[ HO  ] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


conditions  and  immoral  life  of  the  factory 
girls,  telling  us  of  the  situation  already  de- 
scribed in  Chapter  IX.1  His  first  thought  was 
to  give  these  tired  children  wholesome  recre- 
ation. He  secured  the  use  of  our  preaching 
place  in  the  vicinity  of  the  factory  and  in- 
vited the  girls  to  attend  what  he  called  the 
Dojokwai  (Sympathy  Society).  He  soon 
persuaded  the  girls  to  add  a little  reading 
and  writing  to  their  play,  and  later  also, 
sewing.  These  meetings  had  of  course  to 
be  held  after  the  twelve  or  more  hours  of 
work  in  the  factory  had  been  completed. 
Care  had  also  to  be  taken  that  the  studies  and 
the  fun  should  not  absorb  time  needed  for 
sleep.  Membership  in  the  Sympathy  So- 
ciety rose  rapidly  and  soon  numbered  sev- 
enty girls. 

At  first  meetings  were  held  only  in  the 
evening  three  times  a week,  and  lasted  but 
an  hour.  But  as  the  educational  element  of 
the  society  developed,  others  were  induced 
to  help  and  every  evening  save  Sunday  was 

1 See  pages  67-69. 

[ I4I  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


occupied.  In  order  that  girls  on  the  night 
shift  might  continue  their  studies  similar 
classes  were  also  held  from  seven  to  nine 
o’clock  in  the  morning.  Before  six  months 
had  passed  the  play  aspect  of  the  society  was 
largely  superseded  by  the  educational. 

But  opposition  of  Buddhists  now  began 
to  show  itself.  A few  parents  refused  to 
let  their  girls  attend.  The  most  determined 
opposition  however  came  from  the  manager 
in  the  factory  who  had  charge  of  one  of  the 
shifts.  Members  of  that  shift  were  so  treated 
that  gradually  they  dropped  out  of  the  Do- 
jokwai,  and  new  members  from  that  shift 
could  not  be  secured.  The  hostile  manager 
was  however  himself  dropped  some  months 
later,  and  all  opposition  to  the  work  from 
within  the  factory  ceased. 

In  a previous  chapter  we  have  noted  the 
facts  discovered  by  Mr.  Omoto  as  he  went 
the  rounds  of  the  boarding-houses  in  which 
the  girls  were  required  to  live.1  As  these 
conditions  became  clearer  and  more  appall- 

1 See  pages  68,  69. 

[ I42  ] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


ingly  impressive,  he  began  to  say  with  in- 
creasing frequency  and  insistence  that  the 
Sympathy  Society,  however  successful,  could 
not  do  what  was  needed.  Only  a Christian 
home  would  answer.  Not  only  do  the  girls 
need  to  learn  to  read  and  write  and  sew,  but 
even  more  than  these  do  they  need  a home 
free  from  temptation,  clean  and  pure  and 
helpful,  and  elevating  morally  and  reli- 
giously. The  difficulties  however  in  the  way 
of  such  an  enterprise  seemed  insuperable. 
To  say  nothing  of  the  financial  problem,  a 
still  greater  obstacle,  it  was  felt,  was  the 
securing  of  “ recognition  ” from  the  factory, 
for  Buddhist  influence  in  the  factory  was  at 
that  time  still  dominant.  During  these 
months  the  Sympathy  Society  was  winning 
its  way  among  the  girls  and  their  parents, 
and  Mr.  Omoto  himself  was  learning  valua- 
ble lessons. 

One  was  that  the  girls  were  not  all  eager 
to  be  in  a Christian  home.  We  of  course 
forbade  all  drinking,  irregular  hours,  and 
more  irregular  “ friendships.”  Attendance 
[ 143  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


on  prayers,  night  and  morning,  and  at  the 
school,  was  required.  It  looked  for  a time 
as  if  we  should  fail,  for  lack  of  girls  to 
meet  the  expenses. 

But  in  spite  of  discouragements  we  kept 
on.  The  earnings  of  the  girls  who  lived  in 
the  home,  for  the  first  year,  were  1,361  yen. 
Of  this  sum  they  paid  for  board  905  yen, 
and  sent  to  their  parents  456,  whereas  girls 
in  the  other  boarding-houses  were  able  to 
save  nothing,  although  the  amount  paid  for 
board  was  the  same  in  all  the  houses,  being 
fixed  by  the  factory  at  3.60  yen  per  month, 
or  twelve  sen  (six  cents)  per  day. 

In  February,  1903,  a representative  of  the 
government  who  came  from  Tokyo  to  inspect 
the  conditions  of  labor  in  western  Japan, 
heard  of  the  Dojokwai  (Sympathy  Home), 
and  was  so  much  interested  in  the  story  of 
its  work  that  he  took  time  to  visit  it  with 
several  local  officials.  He  was  greatly 
pleased,  for  he  knew  of  nothing  just  like 
this,  in  any  other  part  of  Japan,  particularly 
in  its  hygienic,  educational,  and  moral  ad- 
[ 144] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


vantages,  and  he  expressed  the  wish  that  there 
might  be  many  such.  This  was  our  first 
notice  from  government  officials. 

As  time  went  on,  Mr.  Omoto  was  found 
by  the  factory  officials  to  be  exceptionally 
faithful  to  its  interests;  he  was  rapidly  pro- 
moted from  one  position  to  another,  and  in 
December  of  the  same  year  was  made  “ vis- 
itor ” and  “ employing  agent.”  This  required 
him  to  visit  neighboring  towns  and  villages 
and  collect  new  girls  when  needed.  He 
tried  to  decline  this  work,  saying  that  he 
could  make  no  false  promises  to  the  girls 
or  to  their  parents,  nor  in  any  way  delude 
them  as  to  the  nature  of  their  work,  the 
amount  of  their  wages,  the  conditions  of  the 
boarding-houses;  being  strictly  a temperance 
man,  also,  he  could  not  treat  with  sake 
(sah'-ke)  and  so  get  into  friendly  relations, 
all  of  which  things  employing  agents  con- 
stantly do;  he  had  no  expectations  of  gain- 
ing any  recruits;  the  factory  would  better 
send  some  one  else.  They  told  him  at  least 
to  try.  To  the  surprise  of  all,  and  of  him- 
[ H5  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


self  the  most,  from  his  first  trip  he  brought 
back  with  him  fifteen  girls.  For  three  years 
he  continued  in  this  work  and  was  always 
successful  in  securing  girls  for  the  factory. 
Because  of  his  refusal  to  touch  liquor  in  any 
form,  his  traveling  expenses  were  much  less 
than  those  of  other  employing  agents,  much 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  management;  and 
the  girls  he  secured  on  the  whole  remained 
longer  and  more  contentedly  at  work,  be- 
cause he  had  always  told  them  the  truth. 
This  made  his  position  in  the  factory  more 
secure  and  influential.  After  about  two 
years’  employment  by  the  day  he  was  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  a regular  employee  and 
paid  by  the  month.  His  hours  of  official 
service  were  also  largely  reduced  in  order 
that  he  might  have  time  for  his  educational 
and  Christian  work  in  the  Home — a striking 
testimony  of  appreciation  on  the  part  of  the 
factory  officials. 

As  the  months  passed  by  it  gradually  be- 
came clear  that  the  effectiveness  as  well  as 
the  permanence  of  the  work  demanded  suit- 
[ H^] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


able  quarters.  The  heavy  rental  paid  for 
the  house  made  self-support  impossible.  Re- 
sults already  attained  seemed  to  warrant  ap- 
peal to  friends  for  gifts,  for  the  purpose  of 
buying  land  and  the  erection  of  a building. 
Responses  to  our  appeals  provided  the  needed 
funds,  land  was  purchased  and  a contract 
made  with  a carpenter  on  exceptionally  fa- 
vorable terms,  just  two  days  before  the  open- 
ing of  the  Russo-Japanese  war  (February, 
1904).  Immediately  prices  went  up  by  leaps 
and  bounds;  but  our  contract  was  so  well 
made  and  the  carpenter  had  already  made 
such  full  subcontracts  for  the  lumber,  etc., 
that  we  were  not  troubled  because  of  war 
prices. 

As  we  entered  our  new  quarters  in  June, 
1904,  however,  the  factory  shut  down  the 
main  part  of  its  work  and  discharged  the 
majority  of  its  workers.  This  was  a severe 
blow  to  the  Home.  The  occupants  were 
reduced  to  seven  girls.  Although  the  factory 
opened  again  after  a few  months,  the  con- 
ditions during  and  after  the  war  made  it 

[ H7  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


difficult  for  the  factory  to  secure  girls,  and 
the  Home,  together  with  the  other  boarding- 
houses, suffered  from  lack  of  boarders.  Be- 
ginning with  March,  1907,  however,  special 
circumstances  combined  to  fill  the  Home  to 
its  utmost  capacity;  during  the  three  months 
of  April,  May,  and  June  thirty  applicants 
were  refused  admittance  and  as  many  more 
who  desired  to  enter  the  school  were 
declined. 

Increasing  acquaintance  with  the  disas- 
trous effects  of  factory  labor, — the  lint-filled 
air  so  often  producing  consumption,  and 
the  excessive  heat  of  summer  sometimes  re- 
sulting even  in  sunstroke, — made  Mr.  Omoto 
unwilling  to  persuade  girls  to  enter  upon 
such  a life.  The  needs  of  the  Home  also 
pressed  upon  his  time.  These  considera- 
tions led  him,  in  1906,  to  give  up  his  work 
in  the  factory  altogether,  in  order  to  devote 
his  entire  time  and  strength  to  the  Home  and 
to  the  upbuilding  of  the  moral  and  religious 
life  of  the  girls. 

In  July,  1906,  Mr.  Omoto  attended  in 

[ 148  ] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


Osaka  the  first  convention  of  factory  officials 
convened  to  study  the  problem  of  the  proper 
care  of  operatives.  Representatives  were 
present  from  sixteen  factories  having  night 
schools,  and  specimens  of  the  work  of  the 
girls  were  compared.  Mr.  Omoto  was  fairly 
lionized  because  of  the  superior  quality  of 
the  work  sent  in  from  our  Home  and  many 
newspapers  made  special  mention  of  him  and 
his  work. 

In  September,  1908,  there  was  held  in 
Tokyo  under  the  auspices  of  the  Home  De- 
partment of  the  Imperial  government  an 
eight  weeks’  school  of  applied  sociology. 
Mr.  Omoto  was  among  the  376  persons  who 
attended.  Again  he  received  exceptional  at- 
tention and  was  asked  to  tell  his  story.  At 
this  school  no  less  than  thirty-six  learned 
specialists  gave  lectures  on  every  conceivable 
topic  suitable  for  such  a school.  Among 
the  speakers  so  many  were  professed  Chris- 
tians, and  of  the  rest  so  many  advocated 
such  markedly  Christian  ideals,  that  some 
Buddhists  are  said  to  have  taken  offense,  re- 

[ H9] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


garding  the  whole  affair  as  a part  of  the 
Christian  propaganda. 

In  the  spring  of  1909  there  occurred  an 
event  of  considerable  significance.  Without 
a preliminary  hint  of  what  was  happening, 
Mr.  Omoto  saw  in  the  paper  one  day  the 
amazing  statement  that  the  Matsuyama 
Working  Girls’  Home,  along  with  seventy- 
nine  other  selected  institutions  throughout 
the  country,  was  the  recipient  of  a specified 
sum  (200  yen)  as  a mark  of  government 
approval!  A total  of  40,000  yen  were  thus 
distributed  in  varying  amounts,  Christian 
institutions  being  recognized  to  an  unex- 
pected degree.  Later,  word  came  from  the 
Prefectural  Office  summoning  him  to  receive 
the  gift.  In  the  entire  prefecture  six  insti- 
tutions had  been  thus  honored,  and  of  these, 
two  were  Christian.  This  gift  from  the  De- 
partment of  the  Interior  has  been  repeated 
each  year  since. 

Again  in  May,  1910,  a Conference  of  So- 
cial Service  Workers  (Chu-o  Jizen  Kyokwai) 
was  held  at  Nagoya  at  the  time  of  the 

[ 150] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


Exposition,  and  Mr.  Omoto  was  among  those 
invited  to  attend.  His  address  and  statistical 
report  received  much  attention.  Mr.  To- 
meoka,  representative  of  the  government  and 
chairman  of  the  conference,  spoke  in  un- 
stinted praise  of  the  work  of  the  Home, 
which  he  characterized  as  “ Kokka  Jigyo” 
(a  national  enterprise),  and  recommended 
the  adoption  by  others  of  several  of  its  spe- 
cial features. 

In  the  spring  of  1911,  the  Home  Depart- 
ment of  the  central  government  published  a 
small  volume  describing  one  hundred  and 
thirteen  model  philanthropic  institutions  of 
the  country,  in  which  we  were  of  course 
pleased  to  see  that  the  Home  was  included, 
being  the  only  one  from  the  prefecture. 

As  opportunity  offered  and  means  were 
available,  following  the  advice  of  friends, 
four  small  adjacent  lots  were  purchased,  one 
of  wThich  we  were  almost  forced  to  secure 
for  self-protection,  because  of  the  evil  char- 
acter of  the  buildings  upon  it.  We  now 
own  altogether  about  two  acres  of  land  on 

[ 151  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


the  north  side  of  the  beautiful  Castle  Hill, 
around  which  Matsuyama  is  built.  Here 
have  been  erected  at  different  times  six  build- 
ings (three  of  them  two-storied),  for  resi- 
dential, dormitory,  chapel,  night  school, 
weaving,  hospital,  bath,  and  other  purposes. 
We  have  space  for  a playground,  of  which 
the  girls  joyously  avail  themselves,  after  re- 
turning from  twelve  hours  of  confinement  in 
the  dust  and  clatter  of  machinery.  The  gar- 
den, too,  provides  fresh  vegetables  of  an 
assured  character  at  a minimum  of  expense, 
adding  much  to  the  variety  and  the  whole- 
someness of  the  diet.  The  present  value  of 
the  property  is  more  than  its  original  cost, 
for  land  and  buildings  are  constantly  rising 
in  price,  as  is  the  case  in  other  parts  of  the 
country. 

The  city  educational  authorities  in  1906 
asked  Mr.  Omoto  to  open  his  night  school 
to  the  poor  of  the  district.  For  this  he  had 
to  have  a regular  school  license  from  the 
National  Bureau  of  Education  at  Tokyo. 
This  was  to  be  a Christian  school — the  only 

[ 152  ] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


license  of  exactly  that  kind  in  the  empire, 
he  was  told. 

Industrial  newspapers  have  been  noticing 
the  Home  and  its  work  for  some  time.1  Dur- 
ing the  past  five  years  the  favorable  attitude 
of  local  and  national  government  officials 
has  been  particularly  pronounced.  Govern- 
ment inspectors  have  repeatedly  been  sent 
from  the  Prefectural  Office  and  occasionally 
even  from  Tokyo  to  visit  the  Home.  One 
such  expressed  himself  as  amazed  at  the 
excellent  mental  work  done  by  the  girls,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  all  their  study  takes 
place  after  twelve  hours  of  toil.  Nothing 
but  good  food,  sufficient  sleep,  and  a whole- 
some and  happy  home  life  could  account  for 
their  splendid  health  and  superior  school 
work.  One  man  remarked  that  the  girls  in 
the  Home  do  better  work  than  pupils  in  the 
same  grade  in  public  schools. 

Even  so  early  as  the  autumn  of  1906  the 
Home  Department  of  the  central  government 
sent  down  special  instructions  to  the  pre- 

1 See  page  149. 

[ 153  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


fectural  office  in  Matsuyama  to  investigate 
our  work,  with  the  result  that  of  nine  benevo- 
lent institutions  throughout  Japan  selected 
for  commendation,  ours  was  the  one  most 
carefully  described  and  unqualifiedly  praised. 
A recent  government  pamphlet  concerning 
industrial  problems  makes  special  reference, 
covering  two  pages,  to  the  work  of  the  Home. 
Thus  has  a small  institution  begun  to  serve 
as  a model  for  the  country. 

The  good  health  of  the  girls  in  our  Home 
has  been  in  strong  contrast  with  the  health 
of  those  in  other  boarding-houses,  even  in  the 
best  dormitories  of  the  best  factories  in  other 
cities. 

Statistics  recently  compiled  by  the  gov- 
ernment show  that  the  average  death-rate 
among  factory  operatives  throughout  the 
country  is  extraordinarily  high.  The  highest 
fifty  per  cent,  on  account  of  an  epidemic,  was 
reported  from  a certain  factory  owned  and 
managed  boarding-house  in  Niigata  prefec- 
ture. Not  one  girl  has  ever  died  in  our 
Home.  Of  the  301  girls  who  had  lived  in 
[ 154] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


our  Home  by  1911,  only  eight,  all  told, 
died. 

In  1912  the  Home  passed  through  a crisis 
that  threatened  to  destroy  it.  Late  in  1911 
the  one  factory  in  Matsuyama,  where  all  the 
girls  worked,  was  sold  out  to  parties  living 
in  Osaka.  A new  manager  was  sent  down 
who  introduced  many  drastic  changes.  The 
change  most  affecting  us  was  the  stopping 
of  the  night  work  and  the  lengthening  of  day 
work  to  fourteen  hours:  namely,  from  6 A.M. 
till  8 P.M. 

The  girls  in  the  Home  soon  became  dis- 
satisfied, and  not  many  months  passed  before 
all  had  left  the  factory.  Mr.  Omoto  was 
urged  by  the  manager  to  find  and  bring  in 
new  girls.  He  refused  however  on  the 
ground  that  he  could  not  ask  anybody  to 
work  such  brutally  long  hours. 

Had  it  not  been  for  a little  weaving  de- 
partment with  which  we  had  already  been 
experimenting,  the  Home  would  have  been 
compelled  to  close.  More  looms  were  se- 
cured and  those  girls  who  wished  to  remain 
[ 155] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


with  us  were  given  opportunity  for  work. 
Mr.  Omoto’s  attention  was  at  that  time  di- 
rected to  the  condition  of  the  weaving  girls 
in  the  scores  and  even  hundreds  of  little  es- 
tablishments in  the  city  and  its  suburbs.  He 
soon  found  that  an  educational,  economic, 
moral,  and  religious  condition  existed  among 
them  not  unlike  that  which  he  had  found 
among  the  factory  girls  of  Matsuyama  a 
dozen  years  before.  The  weaving  estab- 
lishments are,  as  a rule,  small  private  af- 
fairs, usually  having  less  than  ten  girls  each, 
and  are  therefore  wholly  outside  of  the  su- 
pervision of  the  government.  The  treatment 
of  workers  and  the  hours  of  labor  are  en- 
tirely settled  by  the  individual  owners. 

As  a rule  the  girls  are  apprenticed  for 
from  two  to  three  years  immediately  on 
leaving  the  primary  school,  at  an  age  there- 
fore of  twelve  or  thirteen.  They  barely 
earn  their  living,  although  they  work  from 
daybreak  to  ten  or  eleven  at  night,  and  in 
some  establishments  even  till  midnight — from 
fifteen  to  eighteen  hours  a day!  There  are 
[156] 


MATSUYAMA  WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 
GIRLS  IN  THE  MATSUYAMA  HOME 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


no  night  shifts  and  rare  holidays  on  occa- 
sional festivals.  The  hygienic  and  moral 
conditions  are  about  as  bad  as  can  be.  It 
is  estimated  that  one  half  of  the  girls  are 
ruined  before  the  close  of  their  apprentice- 
ship. Our  Home  is  now  deliberately  attack- 
ing the  new  problem,  which  in  many  respects 
is  more  difficult  than  was  the  old  one.  We 
have  put  up  two  small  buildings  on  our  own 
grounds,  enabling 'us  to  have  thirty  looms  to 
give  opportunity  for  work  to  thirty  girls. 

The  uniform  quality  of  the  cloth  produced 
by  our  girls,  the  central  portions  of  each 
piece  equaling  the  ends  in  quality,  shows  un- 
flagging moral  attention,  without  effort  to 
rush  the  work  and  stint  the  material;  this 
has  already  won  such  approval  from  mer- 
chants that  the  “ Sympathy  Home  ” brand 
can  be  sold  for  a little  more  than  other 
brands,  and  Mr.  Omoto  is  assured  that  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  amount  which  could  be 
marketed. 

An  owner  of  several  weaving  establish- 
ments has  become  so  impressed  with  the  qual- 
[ 157] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


ity  of  the  work  and  the  character  developed 
in  our  girls  that  he  asked  Mr.  Omoto  if  he 
would  not  take  charge  of  a hundred  of  his 
weaving  girls.  This  new  departure  is  espe- 
cially promising,  for  we  have  complete  su- 
pervision of  the  girls  throughout  the  entire 
twenty-four  hours.  The  girls,  moreover,  are 
already  remaining  in  our  Home  as  a rule 
much  longer  than  they  used  to  when  getting 
work  in  the  spinning  factory. 

As  successive  chapters  of  this  book  have 
shown,  no  more  urgent  problem  faces  New 
Japan  than  that  of  the  moral  development 
of  her  workers.  This  is  particularly  true 
of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  girls  in  the 
larger  and  smaller  factories  and  industrial 
establishments.  The  wretched  physical,  eco- 
nomic, social,  and  moral  conditions  under 
which  the  majority  of  these  girls  lived  and 
worked  at  the  time  when  our  Home  was 
started  are  not  easily  described. 

Many  of  the  factory  authorities 1 are 


!It  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  the  statements  in  this  book  that 
the  political  leaders  and  the  organizers  of  industrial  Japan 

[ 158] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


neither  ignorant  nor  unmindful  of  the  situa- 
tion, and  are  striving  to  remedy  it.  The  gov- 
ernment also  has  enacted  laws  not  a few. 
But  laws  and  official  actions  alone  provide 
no  adequate  solution  of  the  serious  problems 
raised  by  the  extraordinary  industrial  and 
social  transformations  sweeping  over  Japan. 
A new  spirit  must  be  evoked,  both  on  the  part 
of  capital  and  labor,  and  new  moral  ideals 
and  relations  established.  This  cannot  be 
done  by  laws  alone.  Only  love  and  con- 
tagious personal  example  are  sufficient  for 
the  needs. 

Our  Home  was  designed  to  meet  just  such 
a situation  and  has  to  a remarkable  degree, 
we  think,  succeeded.  It  has  provided  not 
only  sufficient  fresh  air,  nourishing  food, 
adequate  bedding,  clean  rooms,  and  whole- 
some recreation,  but  also  moral  and  reli- 

have  been  dependent  on  our  Home  for  ideas  and  ideals  in 
regard  to  the  problems  raised  by  modern  industry.  Many  of 
those  leaders  are  men  of  cosmopolitan  education  and  are  well 
versed  in  the  best  and  most  recent  literature  of  the  West  on 
these  matters.  It  is  true,  however,  that  our  Home  has  been  an 
important  concrete  experiment  affording  in  Japan  valuable 
suggestions  and  stimulus. 


[ x59  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


gious  instruction,  and  some  education.  The 
girls  in  our  Home  have  enjoyed  conspicu- 
ously better  health  and  have  done  better 
work  and  earned  and  sent  to  their  parents 
more  money  than  those  of  the  other  board- 
ing-houses of  Matsuyama.  But  better  than 
these  have  been  the  educational,  moral,  and 
religious  results.  Their  womanhood  has  been 
raised.  They  have  been  better  fitted  for  life’s 
duties  and  for  motherhood  than  they  would 
have  been  without  the  training  which  has 
been  given  them. 

Moreover,  the  results  of  the  Home  have 
been  such  as  to  break  down  opposition.  The 
good-will  and  cooperation  of  the  factory 
officials  were  won.  Factories  in  other  parts 
of  the  country  also  have  recognized  our 
Home  as  presenting  a splendid  ideal  which, 
in  a measure,  many  of  them  are  already  fol- 
lowing. The  local  and  the  central  govern- 
ments, as  already  shown,  have  repeatedly  sent 
officials  to  inspect  us,  and  in  their  reports 
have  not  only  praised  us,  but  have  described 
our  Home  in  detail,  saying  that  we  have 
[ 160] 


WORKING  GIRLS’  HOME 


solved  the  difficult  problem  of  how  to  care 
for  factory  hands. 

Through  the  Home  we  are  reaching  the 
lowest  strata  of  the  working  classes  of  Japan, 
and  are  providing  them  with  ideals,  motives, 
and  education,  and  in  a way,  too,  which  does 
not  tend  to  pauperize  them,  for  each  girl 
pays  as  board  a sum  sufficient  to  cover  actual 
living  expenses.  It  is  also  exerting  an  in- 
fluence on  the  townsfolk.  The  attitude  of 
the  people  toward  Christianity  has  under- 
gone a marked  change.  Villages  in  the  in- 
terior likewise  have  altered  their  attitude 
on  seeing  how  their  daughters,  graduates  of 
our  Home,  have  improved  both  in  intelli- 
gence and  character,  in  marked  contrast  to 
those  who  have  been  in  other  boarding- 
houses. All  in  all,  Mr.  Omoto  has  attained 
remarkable  success.  He  is  absorbed,  heart 
and  soul,  in  his  work  of  bettering  the  moral 
and  religious  conditions  of  the  working  girls 
of  Japan,  and  is  a man  continuously  growing 
in  spiritual  life,  Christian  character,  and 
knowledge  of  men.  I have  never  known  a 
[ 161  ] 


WORKING  WOMEN  OF  JAPAN 


man  more  thoroughly  converted  or  more  en- 
thusiastic in  his  chosen  field  of  work.  The 
Omoto  of  to-day  is  a different  person  from 
the  reformed  debauchee  of  thirteen  years 
ago,  who  began  this  service  for  factory  girls 
as  the  outcome  of  his  sincere  question,  “ Lord, 
what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do?”  His  fam- 
ily have  become  possessed  with  the  idea  of 
social  service,  and  his  five  children  are  being 
brought  up  in  this  atmosphere  and  in  the 
fear  of  the  Lord. 

Thus  has  the  Matsuyama  Working  Girls’ 
Home  survived  many  threatening  vicissi- 
tudes, attained  conspicuous  successes,  and  is 
now  embarked  on  a new  line  of  endeavor. 
May  it  exceed  in  the  future  its  successes  of 
the  past  and  make  still  more  substantial  con- 
tributions to  the  uplift  of  the  working  women 
of  Japan! 


[ 162] 


